“At least that, yes,” Strange says. Agreeing, mild and toothless, but there’s still that question dangling in midair for him too: is it better or worse? Hard to tell. He doesn’t have that many friends to begin with. On the other hand, it blurred lines and made things awkward. It meant the break wasn’t clean; it would have been so much simpler if he and Christine had just never crossed paths again, although life would have been worse for it.

There’s a thoughtful beat, his head tipping back against that mildewy wall, looking across the dim room and this girl who knows far more of life than she should.

“You’ve… rifted, before.” Ellie’s the only one he’s met so far with that particular credential to her name, the multiple worlds notched in her belt. “This question might sound odd. Have you ever met alternate versions of anyone else you knew? Like, you might have recognised them as someone you knew, but your worlds and memories diverged and didn’t match each others’.”