Diary entry 10

So last night was a rollercoaster of emotions. Declan and Valentina challenged each other to a drinking contest and things between them quickly dissolved into some serious PG13 action. Val grabbed Declan's hand and they wandered off to some far corner of the warehouse.

Mrs. Mime dragged out her sleeping bag and fallen asleep in front of the fire and we started talking about home and what we are doing here, and why we walked through the portal.

Hanji was the first to open up. He had faked his I.D. to join the military at 15 because of an abusive family. Turns out the military wasn't much better, comparing it to a prison camp. From his description, I had to agree. One night he saw the portal. He was thinking more about escape than survival at that point so he loaded up his gear and walked through without a second thought.

Tex spoke up next. He described himself as "Stuck in the role of the hate-filled, gun-toting trailer trash of a hick town in bum-fuck nowhere." He saw the portal as a fresh start. He wrote a note asking for his family to sell all his stuff and put it towards his niece's college.

Yuki told us that she was overworked and underpaid. The only thing that really made her happy was sword fighting, apparently, she was on the national level in high school. She saw the portal as a chance to live out her fantasy of being a traveling swordswoman. She had a husband but it was arranged for the sake of family politics, so they never loved each other. They could never make a child so she figured she had nothing to lose.

By this point, I was noticing a theme that everyone else had no real friends or family which made going through easier. I was going to talk next but Mrs. Mime sat up and spoke with an "Um..." So we of course all listened intently. Her explanation was short.

She said "I was an orphan. The house mother saw I was smart so she forced me to study all the time. They made me talk to professors and other people every day. I wasn't having any fun. I tried to run away a lot so they locked me in a small room with just books and some brain toys. I went through to run away.

It was at this point that everyone, except me, had the realization that they didn't want to return home. They all had it bad in some way and they saw life here as potentially better.

I tried to tell my story. That I was actually happy and had friends and family but I couldn't. I broke down and choked on the words. It was the first any of us had cried since coming here. Yuki gave me a consoling hug and I ended up falling asleep next to the fire. I just woke up in the sleeping pile in my sleeping bag. Declan and Val are nowhere in sight, and their bags aren't in the pile so I guess they spent the night alone together.

I think I'm gonna skip the language school today. Get the lay of the land and clear my head.