Ruby City Inbox

[niceskirts]

"Hello. You've reached Keiko Yukimura. I'm not available right now, so please leave your name and a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!"

Comments

[niceskirts]

If...

[Wait for it.]

...Oh. Oh! So, you're... and he...

[Keiko's such an honest girl, it's easy to see the connection play across her face. Yup, there it is, she's got it.]

So, you're... you're different versions of the same person. Sort of?

[originallutece]

Yes.

[Rosalind doesn't look anxious, exactly, but there's a bit more fidgeting with her pen than there'd been a moment ago.]

Our lives diverged in various ways, but yes, we're more or less the same person. But, ah, we regard ourselves in--

[Oh, hell. Oh, hell, she hates admitting this, she hates this part, there's a reason she's not told anyone but Kurama--]

--a romantic light.

[SMITE HER NOW, O MIGHTY SMITER]

[niceskirts]

...Ohhhh.

[The pieces reassemble themselves and click into place, and, finally, Keiko can see the whole picture. They're the same person. But a boy and a girl. And they came together across an impossible divide...

She touches her face as it all comes together, then blinks and focuses on the woman before her once more, fitting her understanding to the reality.]

So... you... you love each other?

[originallutece]

Yes.

[It's a very simple answer, but there's something particularly intent in Rosalind's tone. Do they love each other? God. There isn't a thing in all the worlds that she wouldn't do for her Robert. There isn't an act imaginable she wouldn't commit if it meant keeping him alive and well at her side. God, she'd torn open the world just to get him at her side; does she love him? Yes doesn't begin to cover it.]

Very, very much.

[niceskirts]

Then...

[Admittedly, it's a lot. The parallel universes and the meeting your double and the loving yourself that much--there's little to prepare a mundane fifteen-year-old Japanese schoolgirl for the reality of Rosalind and Robert Lutece.

But the sincerity in those four simple words...

Keiko smiles softly.]

Then I'm happy for you. And I'll be happy to meet him, too; if he's that much like you, I'm sure we'll be able to get along.

[originallutece]

All that I am, with the addition of a predilection for puns.

[Is that good or bad? Who can say. Though Rosalind says it quite fondly, relieved now that they're on the other side of things.]

[niceskirts]

[She giggles.]

It's not like that's the worst personality trait I've ever come across. Puns can be funny sometimes.

[originallutece]

Mm, I'll see if you still feel that way in three weeks. He'll be even worse now that he's got someone who might indulge him . . .

[What a prat, that Robert Lutece, absolutely the worst, utterly awful, how on earth does she stand him, god only knows.]

In the meantime: would you like a tour?

[niceskirts]

Yes, please! It's such a big house, I don't want to get lost on my first day.