The Portal Closed 5: The Refugee

[aldersprig]

It didn’t end up being Millie Dioli that they went to meet with first.

Actually, it didn’t end up being them going to meet with someone at all, the first time.

A senior, a kid they didn’t recognize at all, came up to them after fencing club.  He was awkward and lanky, someone who looked like, Diane thought, he might grow into his body and his face in a few years.

He hadn’t taken part in the club, but he’d watched with a hungry look on his face.  

Now he was aiming the same hungry look at Diane and Barbara.

“You’re… You’re Diane, right?  And, uh, Barbara.”

read on…

Comments

[sauergeek]

Wait. Exactly how many different people have been through exactly how many different portals here? I'm now half expecting that everyone in the school has been through at least one portal and has just been keeping mum about it.

[kelkyag]

Six, or rather five and one speculative. The four protagonists (Diane, Barbara, Ralph, Clarence) together to one place, and Edward to a different one. The protagonists have guessed that Millie Dioli has also gone portal-hopping but she hasn't been on screen yet. (Also some other speculations in earlier segments.)

I am ... concerned about Ed. I'm inclined to believe that he had a bad time on the far side of a portal, but that he made it home again doesn't mean he's not being used, or even an active agent. And "No, we – I got out" suggests that he left people behind, which ... well, no data on whether people who portal-hop together and return separately all turn up roughly when they left or not, I guess, though this scenario does seem to have some actual time delays involved.

[aldersprig]

Ed is in a bad place, yes. And could be dangerous.

Let’s see: “Dorothy. Dot Garrington. The one who told us when she had been to Ombrion, and we thought she was putting us on for the longest time?”

“Donald Jackson, the one that Verdana told us about. Went missing here — I still have the clipping. Because he died in Ombrion.”

And then Ed and Millie Dioli. So far.

[clare_dragonfly]

Ooh, that's not where I expected this hungry look to go. Intriguing. So not only are there lots of worlds, lots of other people have been...

[aldersprig]

There are definitely other worlds! And other people have gone through.... Now the questions are: can THEY go through?