Identify this online short story (which I think was once on the blue)
May 3, 2020 3:00 PM Subscribe
It was a portal-fantasy deconstruction. More inside.
The details I remember are just vague enough to prevent me from using my years-honed google fu. The story itself concerns a gathering of young adults (college-age? Maybe?) who knew each other as children. When they were young, they entered another world through their local woods and had an adventure. (Neither Narnia nor Terabithia is ever referenced by name, though that's the style of portal-fantasy that is implied to have happened here.)
Plot points include:
• One of them never came home, and died in battle in the other world.
o This is the reason for their gathering in the present day: all these years later, some other child has vanished in the same area, and so our protagonists are hearing about it. As far as the rest of the world knows, this is just one missing-persons case that hearkens back to another, but between themselves, the main characters float the possibility that this kid may have also been portal-ed.
• There are three protagonists (remaining). One of them is a woman constantly carrying around supplies and all, just in case the call comes again (it hasn’t). Another is a man who has gotten on with his life. The third, the narrator, is another young woman. They end up meeting in an apartment belonging to one of them.
• While in the other world, the narrator received a prophecy stating that she would love the male protagonist forever. It hasn’t panned out as well as she’d hoped.
• London? Maybe?
o 2015-ish? Maybe?
• At the end of the piece, the characters essentially decide to forget about the other world, and focus on improving their own.
Bonus points if you can find the Metafilter post where this story was featured (which I'm 90% sure there was one).
The details I remember are just vague enough to prevent me from using my years-honed google fu. The story itself concerns a gathering of young adults (college-age? Maybe?) who knew each other as children. When they were young, they entered another world through their local woods and had an adventure. (Neither Narnia nor Terabithia is ever referenced by name, though that's the style of portal-fantasy that is implied to have happened here.)
Plot points include:
• One of them never came home, and died in battle in the other world.
o This is the reason for their gathering in the present day: all these years later, some other child has vanished in the same area, and so our protagonists are hearing about it. As far as the rest of the world knows, this is just one missing-persons case that hearkens back to another, but between themselves, the main characters float the possibility that this kid may have also been portal-ed.
• There are three protagonists (remaining). One of them is a woman constantly carrying around supplies and all, just in case the call comes again (it hasn’t). Another is a man who has gotten on with his life. The third, the narrator, is another young woman. They end up meeting in an apartment belonging to one of them.
• While in the other world, the narrator received a prophecy stating that she would love the male protagonist forever. It hasn’t panned out as well as she’d hoped.
• London? Maybe?
o 2015-ish? Maybe?
• At the end of the piece, the characters essentially decide to forget about the other world, and focus on improving their own.
Bonus points if you can find the Metafilter post where this story was featured (which I'm 90% sure there was one).
Best answer: “Doors are important. What we find on the other side matters even more.” - FPP posted by Fizz, September 25, 2018; the story queenofbithynia links to is referenced in-thread:
But what about those kids?
Relentlessly Mundane by Jo Walton, a short story about the kids who came back.
posted by fings at 10:51 AM on September 25, 2018
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:37 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
But what about those kids?
Relentlessly Mundane by Jo Walton, a short story about the kids who came back.
posted by fings at 10:51 AM on September 25, 2018
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:37 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: We have the answer! All hail the hivemind.
also, I get that bithynia is real, and I'm one to talk, but still: eponysterical
posted by queen anne's remorse at 7:09 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
also, I get that bithynia is real, and I'm one to talk, but still: eponysterical
posted by queen anne's remorse at 7:09 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
« Older Let's play the Covid-19 neologism game! | What was the funniest movie you ever saw when you... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/relentlessly-mundane/
posted by queenofbithynia at 3:39 PM on May 3, 2020 [2 favorites]