First Meeting
When he first saw her, it was for him like looking into a mirror. The same clothes, the same hair color, the same behavior. Everything was like he had it at his side. He looked around his table and looked at her side. The same books, the same hand writing – it was just slightly different but also the same -, the same studies. Who was that woman? Why had he the impression of seeing... himself? Again he looked and then their sights crossed.
She looked at him firmly, persistent, self-confident. He was now sure what he saw WAS himself. He reached for her but the tear just closed down at that moment. Has he really seen... himself? He was so astonished that he just stood still and waited to see a new tear open beside him.
And it opened again. She looked into his eyes and said: “Don’t be so shocked. You are me and not me. I am you and not you. So wouldn’t it be…”
“…interesting to cooperate?” He finished her sentence without really thinking about it. He went closer to the tear and slightly smiled at her.
“Hello, other me, my name is Robert.” He bows his head a little and put his arm behind his back.
“I surely know that, Robert and you also know my name, don’t you?” Her face was really somewhat challenging and he chuckled a bit.
“When it is how I think it is, then you ought to hear to the name Rosalind?” It was surely the right answer. He really couldn’t understand why he knew such a thing but it was just so… obvious.
“Frightening, isn’t it? How you know things …”
“… you shouldn’t know?” They smiled at each other. At the very moment, the tear closed down and he looked at the place where his female self stood and where now a note laid down on which was written: ‘Our research will change the view of the worlds. Want to join in? –R. Lutece’.
He picked it up and smiled. Yes, he really wanted to change it. So, he looked forward for the next meeting. To see his Alter Ego again. To see himself again.
I am you?
“So… I am you?” Robert Lutece was a bit confused.
He was standing in front of a lady who talks about Alter Ego and the fact that she searched for him for several years already. Bah, in a way, she hadn’t searched exactly for him because she thought her other self would also be a woman but nevertheless they were one and the same person.
“Yes. You are me.” Rosalind Lutece’s voice was friendly but also a little bit harsh.
She expected something else so her reaction was just as natural and logical.
“But, when I am you, am I also me or is it always you that I am?” He liked to speak in riddles about subjects.
And he knew also that he – or better she – would react not so happily about that.
“In a way you are both. You are me and...” She couldn’t finish because he cut her words out.
“…I am you. Yes, I understand. Strange talking to you. So, one can say that I talk with myself when I talk with you?” He chuckled and smiled at her face.
He saw that she was a bit nervous and was also cheesed off but he couldn’t tell why he treated this subject with such an idiotic talk.
“You do both, dear Robert. We do both all the time now. I am you, you are me and we are one. Should you not be happy seeing me?” She was a little bit pissed because she knew exactly that he was making fun of her.
She also liked to do this. But now she wouldn’t do it anymore.
“Seeing you? But seeing you is seeing me. Such a confusing sentence in my eyes.” He sighted dramatically but blinked also selfish.
“At the moment you can just say you see me. But WHEN do you see me? Is the ‘when’ at your side the same ‘when’ at my side?” She wanted to go forward, so she skipped some information.
And she really wanted to know this. If the different world or realities – or how you want to tell them – run at the same time.
“I would not say that there is a difference, dear Rosalind but in a way it is.” He looked at his clock and gave a shrug. It wasn’t so important in his eyes.
“Strange to hear it from you, other me. How do you know my name?” She was a bit confused, because she was certain that she forgot to tell her name but he knew it. This could not be possible, but it could also.
“I would say I knew it from the start, you knew mine also, don’t you?” He winked and looked with a slightly frightened look at his machine: “Oh, see. The tear won’t be stable any longer at my side, or is it your side that became unstable?”
“I would rather say the both wouldn’t last longer. The next time will be the last one.” She wasn’t really aware of the words she said there.
Why would she say such a thing? She was confused. But she knew something.
“Will it? Couldn’t it not also be our first time?” A light smile lay on his face as he looked at the crumbling tear. He had the feeling that he knew exactly what she meant with her sentence.
“You know exactly what I meant by that Robert. Our last talk will be our last. What comes after that will be the first.” She sighted and watched calmly at the fading tear.
She was also frightened because she knew that what she wanted to do would be very difficult to do. But she wanted to do it.
“I know. I will wait and looking forward for our ‘last’ time Rosal-“ He wanted to end his sentence but with an ear-splitting noise the tear mizzled and the two looked at a blank area.
“Robert!” Her voice was fading away and she looked down on her notes.
She would do it. She really would do it, no matter the cost.
And mumbling for herself she added: “Yes I am too, because then you will be by my side. How stupid would it sound for someone to hear that I wait for me? I will make the other me my brother. ‘Rosalind and her ‘brother’: Cheerful family reunion’. How foolish this would sound. But they wouldn’t understand it, or would they Robert?” She smiled at the empty place and prepared everything for the next time. Because after next time, she wouldn’t be alone anymore.
Taking a bath
He looked a bit surprised as he heard the door opening. As he looked at his side he saw 'her'.
"You are naked", her voice doesn't sound as if the situation would be embarrassing for her.
"So are you Rosalind. Could it be you too wanted to take a bath?"
"So it is, would you mind coming in or will you stay there and look ashamed?" Her look was fixed on his face.
"How could I be possibly interested in you? You are me. So don't be shy and join in." She already climbed into the bathtub and stared with a non-saying look. He can see something like interest in her eyes and perhaps a small amount of shame.
"Also if you are me: it makes no different to the fact that we have the opposite gender dear Rosalind." He shook his head and wanted to turn away but she grabbed his arm and sighted.
" I cannot deny that my male counterpart is not nice. So, shouldn't my narcissistic vein also be awake in you, no? Don't you find yourself beautiful as a women?" She chuckled and let off his hand.
He sighted and climbed into the bathtub: "You are right. I am just bathing with myself, so I am sharing the bed with myself. No time for shame. You are right."
He relaxed and closed the eyes till the moment where he hears paper crumbling and the scratching of a pen.
"Already 2 weeks and your nose begins to bleed all of a sudden. You feel dizzy?" She comes closer and wiped away the blood. In a harsher tone she added: "Stay here Robert, don't let yourself be taken away!"
But his head was spinning and he feels really uncomfortable. What… is he doing here, anyway?
The smile
„Stand still and now...take a firm look at this point.“ Robert looked into his feminine face and then to the board that he wanted to fill.
„Do I really have to do this, Robert? We will just waste time.“ Her voice wasn’t charming and her looks were none of a lady but he knew that she would do as he pleased. This was one of the conditions. He will stay here if he could have also some liberties. And one of them lies in his hobby. Painting. He loves it.
“Won’t you see yourself painted in oil? I would thank me to have such a opportunity.” He was mocking her a little bit because he knew how much she hated it to be treated like that.
“Don’t make such a face, dear Rosalind, chin up and smile to me, please?” Her sulking face was also cute but he doesn’t want a sulking Rosalind caught in this picture. He likes her rare smiles and so his decision was made to catch it in this painting. Not like Oscar Wilde did it in his book ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ but nevertheless, it was something like that.
“Ksch! You are such an idiot, Robert!” She giggles and give birth to a very charming smile. He also smiles and began to draw.
“The pleasure is all mine.” Yeah, it is indeed.
Cage
„You know what today is, don’t you?“ He chuckled and waited in front of her.
„You know exactly that I know what today is, Robert. Don’t act with such a childish behaviour.” He saw a glance in her eyes that was somehow difficult to interpret but he said nothing.
“Childish behaviour? I just stated a well-known fact. Are you unhappy?” He was a little bit surprised because he thought she would be happy, so he was at the moment.
“Don’t be stupid, Robert. The circumstance that today is a special day will not change the fact that I don’t like this day.” Her words were harsh and she went away. Robert just sighted and went after her.
“Wait, Rosa.” He has the feeling when he would let go of her now, she would just leave. He reached his hand out and grabbed hers.
“I know, as a gentleman, it is not the best way to do what I will do but… Aren’t you curious what is in here?” He pointed at a small package.
“I am not interested in this kind of celebration. I have not, had not and will never be happy. Each year is just a lost year in science.” She was so unhappy. Robert doesn’t like this look in her face.
“They didn’t celebrate it, didn’t they?” He knew what the problem was. He saw that she clinched her hands to fists.
“You know exactly they haven’t. And now, leave me alone with all this.” She was angry and went away.
He doesn’t know exactly what he should do, so he grabbed the gift, opened it, went after her and hugs her from behind.
“Don’t leave me, Rosalind. If you go now, you will just be unhappy as every year, not getting a gift, not getting celebrations, not getting the warm feeling of happiness. Even if it will just last for a moment. Please, don’t go.” As he stated his monologue, he placed the necklace around her neck and closed it.
“The cage suits you well, my beloved Rosalind. Closed, you won’t let a person near you and opened you are just an emotional women. You let me into your world and closed down again. But I am happy right now and so you should also be. Happy Birthday Rosalind. I hope we will be together for a few others.” Yes, he hoped it really.
77
„He... really did it.“ His voice sounded shocked and he was irritated because he hadn’t thought ‘he’ would actually DO it.
“His mind hat to be in a way defect or it is a lack of short temperate memory.” Rosalind sighted and looked at the fight of ‘him’, Booker DeWitt.
“Our telegraph hasn’t helped. It will also be like that the next time, if there is a necessity to do so.” He sighted as well.
“But, he survived.” Rosalind’s voice was a little bit confident but there was also something stern in her voice.
“Yes, you are right. He really survived. So, we really can change things.” His eyes glow happily and he smiled at his ‘sister’.
“You are right. This time the guards haven’t killed him now but I have the feeling that…”
“…he will die somehow or other.” There was an unhappy glance in his eyes and he looked down.
“Chin up, Robert. It was your decision to change the course of things. And we will relive it as long as it takes to change something in the algorithm. That was your saying.” Her voice was harsh but she also pushed up Robert’s chin.
“You are right, Rosalind. Shouldn’t I be happy to have this change to wipe away my… ‘debt’?” He smiled slightly at his Alter Ego and looked down to the battlefield.
“And don’t forget Robert: What's done is done. What's done...will be done. He will just carry on and on his own cross without salvation.” She looked also at the battlefield and began to vanish into thin air.
“…” Robert looked a last time at the battlefield and also vanished with a very sad look on his face. His Alter Ego was right. We all have our crosses to bear.
