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[white_raven]

How many of you knew of an "Asgard" before arriving here? Be it a place, a land, a person, a book, an animal race or something else. Fictional or real both apply.

To rephrase: Did the word "Asgard" exist and mean anything in your world, and if yes, what? Or did you encounter it first after being drafted to this place?

[Testing the waters and theories.]

Comments

[whatagoodgirl]

Yeah, it is.

That I don't really know. There was this giant... thing, and he could teleport people in and out of it, from anywhere and to anywhere. And all you had to do was call him and he'd appear. We didn't even know what he was, though, so we don't know how.

[white_raven]

Have there been any major wars within the last hundred years?

Who controlled the giant, or whom was he affiliated with?

[whatagoodgirl]

Well... yeah. The two World Wars.

We - didn't really know. Well, we controlled it when we were piloting it, but we didn't know who it belonged to. Koyemshi - the one who could teleport - seemed to make it appear, but it could just be that he appeared whenever it did. The other way around, you know?

[It's odd, being questioned so seriously by someone who doesn't sound much older than her, so she's babbling a little bit. She pulls herself together, taking on a more businesslike tone.]

The story you're asking for is a really long one, and not a very nice one.

[white_raven]

That sounds very much like mine, yes.

[She can hear him shift slightly on the other end, and when he speaks up again his voice is oddly remniscent.] Stories that were written by reality seldom are nice ones. [He wonders if she and whoever those "we" were were used by someone, it really sounds like it. But no, the Dark would not work that openly supernatural with normal humans.]

[whatagoodgirl]

It sounds like you've been through some hard times, too. [Her voice is genuinely regretful.]

[white_raven]

[Her thinks of Cafall; of his mother that he never knew; the father that he lives with; of the mare, all the people of the Lost Land, of Taliesin and his king. And then he thinks of Will and what else has changed.]

I should say that I'm not the one to complain.

[whatagoodgirl]

That's a good attitude to take. Look forward instead of back. [She's been trying her hardest ever since she arrived.] There's enough to contend with here.

[white_raven]

That only really works when time is linear. [He wonders what happened to her that she sounds like that.] How long have you been here?

[whatagoodgirl]

Does time move differently where you are, or do you just mean here?

It's been over 70 days, I know that much. It's hard to keep close track without months or days of the week. I was one of the first here.

[white_raven]

For those that only belong to the human world, it would always move in a line. [Implying that for those that don't, all bets are off. There are places outside of time, time travel - though can you really call it that? - and other things that are beyond a typical human's experience.]

So there was nobody here when you arrived?

[whatagoodgirl]

But there's another world, where it's different. [Not a question - he's made that obvious, and she doesn't want to press if it's secret information, which a question would do.]

Well, a big group all arrived at once, so it was kind of a crowd. And there were the locals, of course... it was completely colourless, and none of them had faces. It's gotten a lot better - in some ways.

[white_raven]

It's not ...necessarily a completely different world, though parts don't overlap. [His voice is concetrated - the relations between the different realities are hard to explain, more likely impossible to explain, and he doesn't know enough about them to really attempt it.]

So what they expect us to do seems to be working in some way or the other.

[whatagoodgirl]

[She can understand hard stories with no answer, so she lets it drop for now.]

Yeah, it has been helping. In the shop where I work, everyone has regained their faces. And there are spots that almost look like after the fog, when it was colourful for awhile.

[white_raven]

They didn't have faces at all when you started there?

[That sounds really creepy. He's glad that where he works, at least he can pretend that they are normal if he doesn't pay too much attention.]

[whatagoodgirl]

They were sort of... blurred. You couldn't notice them unless you looked really closely, and then you'd forget them as soon as you weren't looking.

Their manners changed, too. They were pretty cold to me when I first started, because I was just some kid from a different district, but they're really nice now.

[white_raven]

They have gotten friendlier, I noticed that too. [It was just easier to get a job in Freja...] What are you working?

[whatagoodgirl]

I've got a job at a tailor shop in Freyr, as a seamstress.

[white_raven]

I work at a little bakery. [It was tht or the butcher, and while he is no city kid that cannot see an animal dying, he's not particularely fond of killing animals for a living.]

[whatagoodgirl]

I had a friend who ran a bakery here for awhile. Two of them worked there. [Her voice is wistful. It's just a thought, a painful reminder.]

Do you like working there?

[white_raven]

I'm not used to that many people. [He would have preferred a more solitary work, but couldn't find anything.]

[whatagoodgirl]

It doesn't take too long to get used to. [Speaking with some authority.] Going from living with just my mom to being in one of the biggest houses in Asgard was a terrible shock, but I got used to it.

[white_raven]

The biggest by the number of residents?

[whatagoodgirl]

It's just a guess, but our house has way more floors than the others, and I always see way more travelers' faces around Heimdall district than any other one. We seem to be a popular house.

[white_raven]

Loki seems to be quite small, all things considered.

Do you think there are criteria that decide where we are sent?

[whatagoodgirl]

Oh, are you from Loki? One of my good friends lives in Loki. [Just her way of saying that there's no judgment here.]

I think it's about personalities, and how they match what the gods find important. I couldn't really say how, though, I don't know enough about the gods. I've only noticed that most people in Sigyn are gentle, most in Heimdall are really helpful, and Thor people tend to be fighters.