asgardmeridiem | EVENT LOG: DOWN THIS ROAD

Who: EVERYONE going to Ginnungagap
What: the Down This Road mingle log!
When: Days 401-404 ( Feb. 9-16 )
Where: Asgard, Ginnungagap, and the road inbetween.
Rating: PG-13. Anything higher than that should be taken to a private log, please!

Day 401 ( Feb. 9/10 ): Waiting by the Gate of Fire will be several carriages all prepared to take the Travellers to their destination. Natives will help them load into the carriages and provide a personal pack of food and blankets to those that need it, all with a grim face and averted eyes. This journey is one few outside the immortals have ever made, and only several thousand years ago. It's a sacred place, and one they are not entirely comfortable with seeing entered. But their King gave them orders, and so the caravan will depart by midday with Mimir and Honir at the head to lead the way onward.

They will continue riding through sunset and stop to make camp by nightfall. The gods will tell the Travellers to rest up, as the rest of the journey will be a strenuous one.
Day 402 ( Feb. 11/12 ): The caravan will pick up again for a few hours, but it will come to a sudden halt with a cry of pain from the leading carriage. The accompanying gods will be feeling the same inexplicable wrenching as the gods in Asgard, but this far from the city, its effects will not reach the Travellers in their party. A moment will be spared for their recovery before Honir announces that it's best they continue on foot; from there on forward, it's a hike, and not a particularly friendly one.

Ginnungagap sparsely littered with old trees and short, soft grass on the outskirts of the canyon, streams flowing from varying mountain peaks into the vast space below; deeper within, it is sheer rock and sharp edges that are harsh and unyielding. If one were to look at it from above, they might think someone stabbed a knife into solid stone and carved out a jagged wound, and so it is moving through the canyon itself, where one false step can lead to certain and painful death.

The vast majority of the day will be spent moving slowly and carefully, with few breaks to stop for water and rest while Honir and Mimir negotiate the safest paths. By the time it goes dark, they will be too deep into the canyon and its steep cliff faces to stop without risking losing someone to the jagged rocks hidden in the darkness, and so the gods will conjure small orbs of light to follow each Traveller as they direct every footfall very precisely until they reach their destination.

They will stop just outside the path that leads to the cavern of the Earth Giants' final resting place. There is ample space to make camp and rest for the night; Honir and Mimir will have to vanquish their lights in order to regain their strength, so they will urge the Travellers not to go off wandering on their own. The sound of slowly streaming water and the echo of emptiness will linger just outside their reach in the darkness as they try to sleep.
Day 403: By early morning, very little sunlight will be able to reach the company from their position on the small plateau, but the gods will wake their companions and relight their guides to lead them further in. It takes less than an hour to reach the entrance to the kingdom of the Earth Giants, and sunlight will flood the ruins in abundance. It may be easy to tell that the sprawling city was once something of magnificence, the architecture careful and precise to maximise their position in the sun carried down into the canyon.

However, nearly all buildings lay in varying states of destruction, as though a large bomb went off at the centre and blew outwards. Every surface is overgrown by moss, weeds, and chaotic tangles of vines. Waterfalls that were contained and utilised in artful structures and fountains have worn down the walls of the cavern and flow freely throughout the ruins, leaving the earth a sodden constant. The kingdom has fallen into complete disrepair in the eighteen-thousand years it's been deserted.

Most notable, however, is the distinct lack of life anywhere throughout the cavern. Ginnungagap on the whole is not terribly occupied by wildlife, but there are animals and insects that can be found roaming the cliffs; here, there is absolutely none to be found. Nothing stirs but the sound of water echoing off of empty walls, and there is, it seems, a very unnatural hollow sensation from simply standing in this space so devoid of life.

It has long been believed that the tragedy of the Earth Giants' obliteration starved this land of its will to thrive, but this is an extreme the gods did not foresee. The Travellers will be free to explore for a few hours, but will be ushered out at the insistence of the unnerved gods before midday. They have a long journey ahead of them, and they will not stop for anything until night has fallen and they are far from this barren wasteland.
Day 404 ( Feb. 13/14 ): Travel back to Asgard is otherwise uneventful in the wake of their discovery in Ginnungagap. They will arrive to the city pulling itself together after its latest blight, and the gods that accompanied the caravan will give hurried farewells before quickly making their way to the castle to bring news of their experience. The natives will once again help the Travellers unload, this time even more grim than before. Strange things are stirring, and the confusion on both sides will leave many questions unanswered.

[ OOC NOTES: This is the mingle log for the Down This Road event! Remember that you must leave Asgard on Day 401 ( Feb. 9/10 ) if you want to opt out of this month's body horror event! Please put [OPEN/CLOSED] in the subject of your comment, as well as the time and location. Both Honir and Mimir will be around in this log, so feel free to contact us if you'd like them in a particular thread somewhere. Let us know if you have any questions! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Super High School Level Despair?

[It sounds so... ridiculous. Pretty much the only thing giving Naegi any semblance of credibility here is the fact that he's so obviously honest about these things.

Still, you'll have to give him a minute to figure out where to go from that.]

For being so picky about their students, it doesn't sound like they made the safest decisions when it comes to actually accepting them. How'd someone like that get in?

Super High School Level Despair wasn't an actual student who got accepted with that title. They weren't just a single person either, it was a group who called themselves that. My classmate, the Super High School Level Fashion Girl, was the leader of it, so I guess she decided to change her title to something more fitting...

It was a really powerful group too, so I guess it's not too surprising that they can do something like erasing memories.

"Not surprising" you say... Don't tell me technology like that is normal where you're from.

Still, that title implies that the entire group is made up of high school kids. Could people like that really become so powerful?

No, not at all. I was really shocked when I first figured it out and couldn't believe it. It's certainly not normal, but this group also made a giant robot that was destroying the city...

[ H-He doesn't even know... ]

But I don't know, to be honest, how they got so powerful. Maybe if they were other Super High School Level students, maybe they got some influence to help? But even then, it's kind of pushing it...

[Wh...at even...]

...I kind of assumed we were from the same world, but it looks like there's no way that can be the case. [He'd probably have heard if a giant robot destroyed a city.]

An operation like that would need a lot of support. You don't just make a giant robot out of nowhere - that stuff takes some serious money.

Y... Yeah. Apparently, the whole world was destroyed, so I think I'm from a different place than most people here...

[ He hasn't heard from anyone else that their world is all messed up like his, but then again... that doesn't come up in a conversation very easily. ]

As for the money... I suppose the Super High School Level Fashion Girl would make a lot of money from photo shoots. She also had a twin sister who was a mercenary, so even then, it might not be enough, right?

Famous or not, there's no way a model could make enough money on her own to fund the destruction of the world. Even if she had the support of a mercenary, it's doubtful. They'd have to find a way to fund some kind of super weapon that could take out entire military units without anyone noticing.

Seems like a high bar to set for some high school kids, even if they're the best of the best. They had to have gotten some pretty serious support from somewhere.

That's all I know about them, unfortunately. I was trapped in my school with no way of looking out or leaving through normal ways, so I could only find out through photos, videos, and through two people.

I would have asked more if the leader or her twin sister were still alive, but I guess I'll find out more once I go back home.

[Naegi you really need to slow down here geeze.]

I'm assuming they're why you were trapped, too?

[ SORRY he just never talked about this with someone else, just with Kirigiri, so it's hard to remember that people... don't know this. ]

Yeah, they trapped my class in. All the windows and doors were closed off, so it was really easy to not know what's going on outside, or lose your sense of time.

I think I might have been in there for about a month, though.

And then you were able to kill the people behind it and escape?

[It's what he'd assume, at least, given the bits and pieces Naegi's mentioned so far.]

Well, that wasn't really my intention... We just wanted to reveal the Mastermind and have her lose at her own game, so we can leave, but she killed herself after that...

So she committed suicide, huh? Well, in a way I guess she'd have to. If she was caught, it's a pretty effective way to make sure you don't get that kind of information.

[You don't even need to be a ninja to have heard the tales of people preferring to end their own lives than give up anything to the enemy.]

Yeah, she was really bounded by the own rules she made as well. If we can reveal the murderer in a class trial, they're executed, but I didn't think she would actually go ahead and do herself in so willingly...

[Slow down there Naegi.]

...You had rules for dealing with murderers?

[ HE CAN'T, IT'S HARD ]

Um, well, only in my school, when I was trapped there... We were put in a game where we were forced to kill each other, to either get out or for other prizes.

The rules stated that if you kill someone, a trial will be held after an investigation by the class, and if we correctly identify the murderer, they'll be executed. If not, then we will be...

So no letting the murderer get away with it for the sake of going outside and getting help.

What I'm surprised about is that she actually murdered someone in the first place. If she was behind it, that's a huge opening to leave. Was she trying to kill you all in one fell swoop or something?

EVENT LOG: DOWN THIS ROAD

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