Coming Home

A lot inspired this post. I'll spare you all the gory details, given that it would involve three separate stories. I'm going to tell you one.

Recently I've been going back to fictional roots a lot-rewatching, rereading, and generally remembering. The final book in a series I've been following for maybe half my life just released, so nostalgia has become a nearly constant presence in my life. But the conception of this post wasn't a beginning or an ending. It was a middle.
The title of the book was sickeningly apt, Changes. You guys have heard my occasional references to Jim Butcher's niche-popular urban fantasy series, The Dresden Files. I don't think you've experienced the full brunt of my enthusiasm for the series yet.
I went into the twelfth book of the saga fully aware and(so I thought at the time)fully prepared to experience the heartwrenching, gut-sucking agony that is sad books.
Sad is not a good enough word for this book. Jim Butcher sure knows how to break hearts.
It was around this time that I invented a new word, one which might have been useful when I was reading Beautiful Darkness: book breakup. Turns out there is a level of pain that can break me. I'm not surprised the Butcher was the one who discovered it.
During this brief sabbatical from one of my favorite current book series, I've been thinking a lot about the sensation of coming home.
Personally, I find fictional worlds very homey. There's a reason people don't like saying goodbye to an invented world any more than they do something real. To dedicated fans, this kind of thing becomes real in our minds. We may recognize that these people do not, in fact, exist, but that won't stop us missing them.
To me, revisiting fictional worlds I've been long acquainted with is like rolling up to my house after a long trip. It's familiarity and comfort and...almost an exhale. Like something inside you was waiting to go back to these people, these places.
Maybe it's just me, or the late hour causing these ruminations. And the usage of words like "ruminations". But I find myself smiling when I rewatch a favorite episode of Star Trek or Doctor Who, or read the first chapter of a new book, always so glad to be back.
So ends my little late-night love letter to dreamed-up people.
May your swords stay sharp and your chocolate stocks always plentiful.