Alchemical twin

I happened to see my alchemical twin today; she caught my attention because she wore black high-heeled boots that laced up to her knees—as she walked past my table, I couldn’t help but notice (and she criss-crossed back and forth quite a few times). She sat at a table with three friends and I noticed that she wore blue sunglasses inside—just like my blue sunglasses; and she also made peculiar little gestures with her hands at intermittent intervals, just like me. It’s quasi-autistic, baton hands. She had the same hair colour too—though I am hairless now.

She wore earrings with a Mercurial symbol on them so I went up to her and said, “Where did you get the earrings?” She was a bit taken aback, but mumbled something about Etsy—she knew really but she didn’t want to tell a stranger. I asked her if she was a student and she said, “Yes.” I asked her what she studied. She said, “Theatre Studies.” This was in Leamington Spa so she must go to Warwick University. I said, “Do you know anything about alchemy?” She said, “No.” Then I whipped off—perhaps I should have taken her number, but she wasn’t that attractive; she garnished herself with those boots.

It’s the Theatre Studies, you see—she knows about the alchemical arts in an implicit way; it’s all about presentation, it’s all about the play of masks. There aren’t that many people who wear blue-tinted sunglasses indoors and make weird little baton-like hand movements when they work at their computer—so she was like my female counterpart in this regard, although she didn’t know it yet. Perhaps I sparked the first reaction.