The Assassin's Lament

I remember when this was a gentleman’s game;
when we were just young and with nought to our name

A flickknife and mask, were the tools of our trade
And we plied it with honour, like those we unmade.

The knife in the dark, the swish of a cloak,
then sneaking off down some back alley, for a smoke,

A swiftly-cleaned blade all that told of a kill.
Now that, right there, that’s a carefully-honed skill.

...

But now, so I’m told, we all use a gun,
Which twice as efficient, but half as much fun

And a bullet’s not alive, can never walk, talk, or play
it has no respect for what it’s taking away.

It’s over too quickly, and any idiot can try
if all you need’s a revolver, and someone to die.

There’s no beauty or art in a throwing bits of lead
(even if the catcher does end up dead)

...

So take your pistols, your rifles, your scopes and your sights.
I’d trade it in an instant for those sweet moonless nights,

For a cloak with a hood and the glint of a dagger,
To walk the streets with respect, and the hint of a swagger.

I wish it were then, and not here right now
Sitting here, alone, asking why, and how-

How’s a craftsman like me to ply my trade and thrive;
and what’s the point of killing, if you don’t feel alive?

Reflection

In the beginning, they say, God invented the universe.
On the first day, he invented light,
and then dirt the next day,
and then animals,
and so on.

This isn’t, strictly speaking, correct.

What actually happened, was that he got as far as light
and then spent six days trying to get the physics right
and eventually gave up
and threw together a quick work-around
which was much more efficient but used much more space
(which wasn’t really a problem in an infinite universe)
and moved on to doing the interesting stuff like life in the remaining four hours before his deadline.

And this is the story of that work-around.

For all intents and purposes,
I’m you.
I look like you,
I dress like you,
I talk like you,
I act like you.
I don’t think like you, though.
(but we’ll get to that later.)

You probably see me every day.
(Why this doesn’t freak you the hell out is beyond me,
but apparently it doesn’t.)
I’m the person behind the mirror.

Hi.

Reflections,
it turns out,
are pretty damn hard to simulate properly.
So I exist-
not just me, my entire universe
-to make your mirrors work.

It’s a simple enough concept.
First,
take a copy of your universe.
Rotate the whole thing through a higher spatial dimension,
and run it next door to your original.
Then,
Anywhere that should be reflective,
slap a big ol’ window
(obviously not an actual window,
we’re talking meta-meta-meta-physical equivalents here.)
tweak your transparencies and tints,
and voila.
Mirror.
Run it a few quintillionths of a second behind,
and you’ve got your speed-of-light delay.
Allow the dimensional membrane to curve,
and you’ve got your funhouse mirrors.
And make it porous enough,
and you’ve got your perfectly elastic subatomic particles.

Like I said, simple.
(Much simpler than all that vector calculus stuff anyway.
Who has time for that kind of crap?)

There’s just one problem:
Us.
The simulation
(in point of fact)
is purely physical.
And while this shouldn’t be a problem from a reductionist perspective,
it turns out that actually,
there actually is some element of consciousness,
of ‘mind’, if you like,
which is non-physical.
The practical upshot of which is that you end up with an entire universe full of people trapped in someone else’s body,
with no control over who they are
or what they look like
or wear
or say
or do.

As far as I can ascertain,
(from my own thought experiments at any rate-
it’s not like I can do any other kind,
and who would I confer with when all my words are yours?)
nobody in your universe is even aware of ours.
Why should you be?
It’s a testament to how seamless the effect is-
mirrors work the way they should.
Why would you question something as simple as that?

All I ask,
Literally,
all I ask,
is that,
should this message get through,
should you ever look in a mirror,
and wonder,
Who is that person on the other side of the glass?
is that you think of us.
Spare a thought,
for the countless minds trapped in your bodies.
Live the best life you can,
if not for you,
then for us.

(And for God’s sake,
don’t wear the aqua tie with the salmon shirt.)