June 6th, 1871: Robert and Rosalind Lutece are born.
1889: Barriers To Trans-Dimensional Travel by R. Lutece is published. Contact between Robert and Rosalind has occured; Robert may have attempted to temporarily cross over already.
August 10th, 1890: ❝When I was a girl, I dreamt of standing in a room looking at a girl who was and was not myself, who stood looking at another girl, who was and was not myself. My mother took this for a nightmare. I saw it as the beginning of a career in physics.❞
August 10th, 1890: ❝I had trapped the atom in the mid-air. Colleagues called my Lutece Field quantum levitation, but in fact, it was nothing of the sort. Magicians levitate— my atom simply failed to fall. If an atom could be suspended indefinitely, well— why not an apple? If an apple, why not a city?❞
May 1893: Columbia is completed and presented at the Chicago World Fair. The Principles of Quantum Mechanics is likely published around this time.
July 3rd, 1893: ❝Comstock seems to have been made sterile by simple exposure to our contraption. A theory: just as sexual reproduction can de-emphasize the traits of each parent, so goes the effect of multiple realities on our own. Your traits dissipate, until they become unrecognizable, or cease to exist.❞
October 8th, 1893: Anna DeWitt is bought by Robert, and both she and Robert step through the tear to come to Columbia.
October 10th, 1893: ❝When I finally brought my brother through, he seemed to lack the capacity to square his own reality with this one. I suspected such a thing would happen, yet had no means to accommodate his distress. His behavior was that of the feebleminded. He hemorrhaged nearly continuously from his nose. Naturally, I was able to transfuse him from my own veins and thus avoid catastrophe. In the end, it was music that provided therapeutic and grounded his thoughts. A middle C vibrates at 262 Hz, no matter what the universe.❞
October 15th, 1893: ❝The Lutece Field entangled my quantum atom with waves of light, allowing for safe measurement. Sound familiar, brother? That’s because you were measuring precisely the same atom from a neighboring world. We used the universe as a telegraph. Switching the field on or off became dots and dashes. Dreadfully slow— but now, you and I could whisper through the wall…❞
October 15th, 1893: ❝Brother, what Comstock failed to understand is that our contraption is a window not into prophecy, but probability. But his money means the Lutece Field could become the Lutece Tear — a window between worlds. A window through which you and I might finally be together.❞
October 15th, 1893: ❝You have been transfused, brother, into a new reality, but your body rejects the cognitive dissonance through confusion and hemorrhage. But we are together, and I will mend you. For what separates us now, but a single chromosome?❞
October 15th, 1893: ❝Brother, I have told you many times that I encountered this particular Caesar before he crossed the Rubicon. When I met Comstock, he was little more than a preacher, able to move both members of the flock or members of Congress with equal dexterity. He believed in my work, and his influence bought the funds I so needed. And if he wanted to use tears to play prophet, that was his prerogative. But at some point, the man became incapable of distinguishing his performance from his person. I sit in judgment - but then again, it was I who built the stage.❞
January 4th, 1895: ❝Lady Comstock seems to believe the child is a result of some errant act of carnality between myself and her beloved Prophet. I told the poor woman the truth: that the child was a product of our little contraption. But I think she found that less believable than her delusion.❞
March 3rd, 1896: ❝Fink’s bird is a repulsive creature. But I suppose a prison needs a guard. What surprised me is not how the girl has imprinted upon the monster. After all, one might observe a baby chimpanzee accept a wire replica for its mother. But I did not expect the brute to be capable of forming an attachment in return. Hm. Perhaps it could prove a better father to her than the two she has known.❞
July 6th, 1902: Columbia secedes from the United States.
1904: Robert and Rosalind Lutece build, on Comstock's orders, the Siphon.
July 27, 1907: ❝This evening, on my way back from supper, my theory became reality: a spontaneous tear had opened in the market district, emitting both sights and sounds. I observed what I could only imagine to be some future version of Columbia. Though familiar, strange red flags with a small yellow icon flew from her rooftops. Although we can lock up the girl, it appears her powers will not be imprisoned so easily.❞
December 4th, 1907: ❝The Prophet is dying. The metastasis has aged him so quickly. Why does this Comstock decay, while a Comstock in another world remains fit? If genetics are destiny, what accounts for the difference? Perhaps exposure to the contraption? Hm. It merits further study.❞
June 16, 1908: ❝That ghastly Fink fellow has been busy of late. He has sent his minions out to prowl the city, on the lookout for tears wherever they might appear. They are armed with camera and Voxophone. One could only presume he is no longer content to steal patents from his own reality. No surprise, then, his scientific “breakthroughs.” I imagine I could also appropriate parlor tricks like incinerating trees with the snap of my fingers. But the universe offers more delicious fish to fry.❞
September 3rd, 1909: ❝Our contraption shows us the girl is the flame that shall ignite the world. My brother says we must undo what we have done. But time is more an ocean than a river. Why try to bring in a tide that will only again go out?❞
September 5th, 1909: ❝What makes the girl different? I suspect is has less to do with what she is, and rather more with what she is not. A small part of her remains from where she came. It would seem the universe does not like its peas mixed with its porridge.❞
October 16th, 1909: ❝My brother has presented me with an ultimatum: if we do not send the girl back from where we brought her, he and I must part. Where he sees an empty page, I see King Lear. But he is my brother, so I shall play my part, knowing it shall all end in tears.❞
October 31st, 1909: Rosalind and Robert Lutece are killed.
November 3rd, 1909: ❝Comstock has sabotaged our contraption. Yet, we are not dead. A theory: we are scattered amongst the possibility space. But my brother and I are together, and so, I am content. He is not. The business with the girl lies unresolved. But perhaps there is one who can finish it in our stead.❞
November 5th, 1909: The Luteces appear in public for the first time, and tell Rupert Cunningham the identity of their murderer (and mildly torment him for taking poor funeral photos).
October 31st, 1910: ❝Our current state of being -- or lack thereof -- has left my brother... unfulfilled. The biological urge to leave one's mark is strong. And it is not an impossibility. We could instantiate ourselves back in Columbia. Return to an old life, for the possibility of creating new. But... we died in that world. Returning would mean giving up part of us. Ourselves. We'd become flesh and all that it is heir to. The mysteries of the universe would become, once again, mysteries.❞
July 6th, 1912: Booker DeWitt is brought over and completes his mission.
1889: Barriers To Trans-Dimensional Travel by R. Lutece is published. Contact between Robert and Rosalind has occured; Robert may have attempted to temporarily cross over already.
August 10th, 1890: ❝When I was a girl, I dreamt of standing in a room looking at a girl who was and was not myself, who stood looking at another girl, who was and was not myself. My mother took this for a nightmare. I saw it as the beginning of a career in physics.❞
August 10th, 1890: ❝I had trapped the atom in the mid-air. Colleagues called my Lutece Field quantum levitation, but in fact, it was nothing of the sort. Magicians levitate— my atom simply failed to fall. If an atom could be suspended indefinitely, well— why not an apple? If an apple, why not a city?❞
May 1893: Columbia is completed and presented at the Chicago World Fair. The Principles of Quantum Mechanics is likely published around this time.
July 3rd, 1893: ❝Comstock seems to have been made sterile by simple exposure to our contraption. A theory: just as sexual reproduction can de-emphasize the traits of each parent, so goes the effect of multiple realities on our own. Your traits dissipate, until they become unrecognizable, or cease to exist.❞
October 8th, 1893: Anna DeWitt is bought by Robert, and both she and Robert step through the tear to come to Columbia.
October 10th, 1893: ❝When I finally brought my brother through, he seemed to lack the capacity to square his own reality with this one. I suspected such a thing would happen, yet had no means to accommodate his distress. His behavior was that of the feebleminded. He hemorrhaged nearly continuously from his nose. Naturally, I was able to transfuse him from my own veins and thus avoid catastrophe. In the end, it was music that provided therapeutic and grounded his thoughts. A middle C vibrates at 262 Hz, no matter what the universe.❞
October 15th, 1893: ❝The Lutece Field entangled my quantum atom with waves of light, allowing for safe measurement. Sound familiar, brother? That’s because you were measuring precisely the same atom from a neighboring world. We used the universe as a telegraph. Switching the field on or off became dots and dashes. Dreadfully slow— but now, you and I could whisper through the wall…❞
October 15th, 1893: ❝Brother, what Comstock failed to understand is that our contraption is a window not into prophecy, but probability. But his money means the Lutece Field could become the Lutece Tear — a window between worlds. A window through which you and I might finally be together.❞
October 15th, 1893: ❝You have been transfused, brother, into a new reality, but your body rejects the cognitive dissonance through confusion and hemorrhage. But we are together, and I will mend you. For what separates us now, but a single chromosome?❞
October 15th, 1893: ❝Brother, I have told you many times that I encountered this particular Caesar before he crossed the Rubicon. When I met Comstock, he was little more than a preacher, able to move both members of the flock or members of Congress with equal dexterity. He believed in my work, and his influence bought the funds I so needed. And if he wanted to use tears to play prophet, that was his prerogative. But at some point, the man became incapable of distinguishing his performance from his person. I sit in judgment - but then again, it was I who built the stage.❞
January 4th, 1895: ❝Lady Comstock seems to believe the child is a result of some errant act of carnality between myself and her beloved Prophet. I told the poor woman the truth: that the child was a product of our little contraption. But I think she found that less believable than her delusion.❞
March 3rd, 1896: ❝Fink’s bird is a repulsive creature. But I suppose a prison needs a guard. What surprised me is not how the girl has imprinted upon the monster. After all, one might observe a baby chimpanzee accept a wire replica for its mother. But I did not expect the brute to be capable of forming an attachment in return. Hm. Perhaps it could prove a better father to her than the two she has known.❞
July 6th, 1902: Columbia secedes from the United States.
1904: Robert and Rosalind Lutece build, on Comstock's orders, the Siphon.
July 27, 1907: ❝This evening, on my way back from supper, my theory became reality: a spontaneous tear had opened in the market district, emitting both sights and sounds. I observed what I could only imagine to be some future version of Columbia. Though familiar, strange red flags with a small yellow icon flew from her rooftops. Although we can lock up the girl, it appears her powers will not be imprisoned so easily.❞
December 4th, 1907: ❝The Prophet is dying. The metastasis has aged him so quickly. Why does this Comstock decay, while a Comstock in another world remains fit? If genetics are destiny, what accounts for the difference? Perhaps exposure to the contraption? Hm. It merits further study.❞
June 16, 1908: ❝That ghastly Fink fellow has been busy of late. He has sent his minions out to prowl the city, on the lookout for tears wherever they might appear. They are armed with camera and Voxophone. One could only presume he is no longer content to steal patents from his own reality. No surprise, then, his scientific “breakthroughs.” I imagine I could also appropriate parlor tricks like incinerating trees with the snap of my fingers. But the universe offers more delicious fish to fry.❞
September 3rd, 1909: ❝Our contraption shows us the girl is the flame that shall ignite the world. My brother says we must undo what we have done. But time is more an ocean than a river. Why try to bring in a tide that will only again go out?❞
September 5th, 1909: ❝What makes the girl different? I suspect is has less to do with what she is, and rather more with what she is not. A small part of her remains from where she came. It would seem the universe does not like its peas mixed with its porridge.❞
October 16th, 1909: ❝My brother has presented me with an ultimatum: if we do not send the girl back from where we brought her, he and I must part. Where he sees an empty page, I see King Lear. But he is my brother, so I shall play my part, knowing it shall all end in tears.❞
October 31st, 1909: Rosalind and Robert Lutece are killed.
November 3rd, 1909: ❝Comstock has sabotaged our contraption. Yet, we are not dead. A theory: we are scattered amongst the possibility space. But my brother and I are together, and so, I am content. He is not. The business with the girl lies unresolved. But perhaps there is one who can finish it in our stead.❞
November 5th, 1909: The Luteces appear in public for the first time, and tell Rupert Cunningham the identity of their murderer (and mildly torment him for taking poor funeral photos).
October 31st, 1910: ❝Our current state of being -- or lack thereof -- has left my brother... unfulfilled. The biological urge to leave one's mark is strong. And it is not an impossibility. We could instantiate ourselves back in Columbia. Return to an old life, for the possibility of creating new. But... we died in that world. Returning would mean giving up part of us. Ourselves. We'd become flesh and all that it is heir to. The mysteries of the universe would become, once again, mysteries.❞
July 6th, 1912: Booker DeWitt is brought over and completes his mission.
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