Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

Lives are lived and lost in “almost.

People who’ve been hurt often think they have some sort of right to go around hurting other people,” said Sumi. “They think trauma’s a toy to keep handing down forever. But the fact that someone hurt you and tied you up in knots doesn’t give you the right to do it to anybody else. I’m a formerly dead girl made of gingerbread and hope, and even I can see that.

People who can’t change aren’t really perfect, and no matter how much we love it somewhere, that doesn’t mean it’s good for us,” said Sumi.

Every door is a little different, and every world they take us to is very different indeed, but they all ask the same thing of us, and they all break our hearts, in the end.

Maybe’ is a hook to catch the unwary,” said Sumi. “Maybe it’s going to be better tomorrow. Maybe the snake won’t bite. Maybe the mushroom won’t be poisonous this time.

The door wasn't there because you have any obligations left to these people, or this world. It was there because sometimes people can't let go of who they thought we were, and so they keep trying to tangle us in nets and drag us back. That doesn't mean we have to go. Or if we do go, that doesn't mean we have to stay.

I don’t think we get second chances with our own injuries,” said Sumi. “All we can really do is try to clean up all the broken glass before someone else gets there.

You don't have to be mean," said Antsy. "Sadly, sometimes, I do," said Sumi. "If I was nice all the time, I would be predictable, and if I become predictable, I die inside.

It was perfect. Everything here was perfect, except for me, and so they made me leave instead of changing enough to let me be perfect, too.

People who can't change aren't really perfect, and no matter how much we love it somewhere, that doesn't mean it's good for us.

If you want a life without terrible surprises, you should always look at the worst possible answer until you understand it all the way down to the bottom. Once you can do that, you'll know what's coming, even if you'll never learn to like it.

Because all the ways we're not normal are the way our normal homes want us to be.

I've always wanted to say this," he said, and took a deep breath before saying, in a sonorous voice, "Welcome, to Jurassic Park.

We're your penance, silly, the whole chaotic bunch of us, and as part of your penance, I say you're not done suffering us yet.

None of us is normal, and we'll either figure out how to pretend we are, or we'll find our doors home, and then we won't have to worry about it anymore, because all the ways we are not normal are the way our real home want us to be. We're perfectly normal in the right enviroment.

Not wanting to look at a thing doesn’t make it not so; it just makes it so the thing can lurk and loom and leap out when you don’t expect it. If you want a life without terrible surprises, you should always look at the worst possible answer until you understand it all the way down to the bottom. Once you can do that, you’ll know what’s coming, even if you’ll never learn to like it.

It doesn’t matter what it is. If it’s yours, it’s enough.

A weapon’s a weapon, whether or not you know its name.

Kids know the things they love weren't here yesterday, and they're smart enough to see how that can easily mean those things won't be here tomorrow.

I was never a 'people person'. I can get along with them pretty well, but they made fun of my hair and my skin, called me all sorts of names, and you know, anything can be an insult if you shape it the right way before you throw it. [...]

She was me and I was her, and sometimes I remember her so vividly I expect to see her waiting in my mirror. I suppose we all feel that way, when we’ve gotten old.

People are smart enough that they don't get lost very much without intending to, and someone losing track of you doesn't mean you're what got lost. It normally means what got lost was caring about what the people looking for you think.

Yeah, this is a quest. Whether or not we want it to be, this is a quest.

You can’t live a life on ‘maybe’,” scoffed Vineta. “Why not? Everyone else does.

Questions are like coats: you can turn them inside out when you need to hide... Nothing sees you when you are cloaked in a question with its seams showing.

Just because someone hurt you when you were a child, that doesn’t make it right for you to hurt anyone else.

People who've been hurt often think they have some sort of right to go around hurting people," said Sumi. "They think trauma's a top to keep handing down forever. But the fact that someone hurt you and tied you up in knots doesn't give you the right to do it to anybody else.

This isn't my world, not really. It was hers, and she never existed anyway, and so I'm not staying here.

Last names could change, and being a part of a family didn’t mean people wouldn’t hurt you, but it was still something wonderful.