[ It's not been often lately that any of the gods have seemed outright celebratory on the network, but here you have it now: Thor's face is lit up with a brilliant and almost triumphant grin. ]

Polish your armor and sharpen your swords. We've taken Tyr and his power out of Thiazi's hands, and we know now for sure: she will not stand a chance against us and our dragon friends.

We will leave at sunrise in two days' time, and know this, Travelers - she is afraid, and with good reason. In two days, we march to victory.

[ ooc notes: He'll be hanging around a while if anyone has any questions, but feel free to use this post for ic discussion/planning too! The ooc event post will go up detailing all of the minutia in the morning. Thanks! ]

alright asgard. long time, no see. hear you've been a bit down lately. no problem. i've got something to lift your spirits.

unfortunately i've a bit of a shopping list i've gotta take care of before it can. if you've got any of this stuff, i'm willing to cough up the cash. in the end, considering you're of age, it'll benefit me and you both.

-corn or corn meal
-yeast
-sugar
-copper tubing

[ You're not subtle, Ash. ]

[ Private to Jo ]
i'm gonna need some money.

[ This is Odin's first real public appearance since the martial law was first instated, an intentional move after the whole traitor fiasco, and despite his standard crisp black suit and ramrod straight posture, the King of Asgard is still looking a little rough around the edges. A muscle jumps in his jaw right before he begins speaking. ]

There's a decision to be made. You handled the last with a surprising amount of grace and reason, and for your hand in both getting us to this point and in the war at large, we'll give you say in this one as well.

You returned from Mimisbrunnr with the information we needed to recover Tyr's soul from Thiazi's grasp, but we've been waiting for the right moment. We need to be prepared, because as soon as we make our move, she's going to know, and she's going to be pissed.

[ At least for that much, he almost looks pleased, insofar as the only change in his demeanor being a sort of fire in his eyes. It's short lived. ]

So. Before we perform the ritual, we need to decide what to do with Tyr's soul once we have it. This is where you come in. My colleagues and I will be around to answer any questions you might have, but seeing as this is a largely personal matter for many of us, I'll remind you lot to either keep it professional or keep it to yourself.

[ Looking @ u, Freyr and Loki and any other bleeding hearts in the audience. ]

We need to act fast, so you have until sundown. And one last word of caution - [ As personal as Odin will get for this post, with an imperceptible glare. ] - do not take this lightly.

[ OOC NOTES: This is the IC discussion regarding whether or not to resurrect Tyr! The poll is still open until Oct. 16 at 11:59PM CST, so hash things out and make sure to vote!! Let us know if you have any questions or if you'd like to request an NPC in specific for your thread! ]

[Sam has been essentially silent for the past two or three weeks.

He's been researching -- something that's been disrupted due to Asgard falling apart at the seams for what feels like the tenth time this month, but Sam has finally reached a conclusion. A pretty obvious one, if he says so himself. And so he turns on the video feed, looking tired -- drawn, with messy hair, almost like he hasn't slept in a few days (which, let's be real, he totally hasn't), and he draws in a deep breath before speaking.]

This world isn't going to last much longer unless we do something.

( CUT FOR LENGTH BECAUSE SAM DOESN'T SHUT UP )

[Sam hasn't posted on the network in awhile -- a month and a half, to be precise -- mostly because he's been busy. He's moved, he's working a lot, he's been dealing with his own... particular brand of issues.

But Asgard is having difficulty. Odin is in a coma and while Sam might hate the annoying pretentious prick, that's most definitely not a good sign. And while before Sam couldn't rationalize in his head that the end of this world meant the end of others -- now, it's a possibility, something he can't ignore.

He wants to stay here. He wants to stay, badly.

To do that, Sam needs to reach out and touch base on his resources.]

Hi, Asgard.

[He makes this speech too often, but it's gotten him a lot of good friends out of the deal. Information is pretty priceless, after all.]

I'm Sam Winchester. Some of you might've been given my guide to the gods upon arrival, so -- if you have any questions concerning this world, the powers you've been given, or what's happened here so far, you can ask me.

[He pauses.]

I usually don't ask for things in return, but -- how are the state of your worlds, at home, before you came here? Good, bad? Spectacularly awful? On the brink of collapse or the height of prosperity? I'm just... wondering.

[Another pause.]

-- thanks.

( [Filtered to list Kate Beckett, Jo Harvelle, Dean Winchester, Castiel, Buffy Summers, Merlin, and Morgana Pendragon // Private // Unhackable] )

( [Filtered to Thor // Private // Unhackable] )

[ There's a boy looking a little tired, as though a boy his age stayed up past his bed time.

But he also looks distinctly annoyed, but it is so minute it's hard to tell. ]

Did anyone got any presents today? 'Cause I just did.

[ Never mind that his present is less to be desired. You can see it behind him, on his bed.

Why can't he be given a toy car or something. That would be better than a reminder of an attempted attack on Jesse's life. ]

[Where love might bring about sorrow, it also welcomes joy. The note hits a little close to home for him, because as glad as he is that his family is here, as glad as he is for Jon living right across the hall from him, there's still that sliver of doubt, of guilt, and that sliver's been enough to keep him up at nights, wondering if he should tell them, what he should say.

Love, he supposes, brings about both joy and sorrow, and makes fools out of kings easily enough (if not corpses). We follow our hearts wherever they take us--but right now, the only thing his heart is leading him into is more confusion and not enough sleep. He's not sure if using the network is going to help, but he has to at least try.

So, after filtering the feed away from Catelyn Stark, Jon Snow and Joffrey Baratheon (because he's just not in the mood to deal with Joffrey of all people right now nope), it opens on a very serious-looking Robb. Somebody didn't eat the chocolates. Or probably sleep that well last night, but he's no stranger to sleepless nights.]

I've two questions to ask of you, Asgard.

Say something terrible [ie a certain wedding] happened to you and your family, or someone you cared deeply about, before you came here. If they came here somehow and they didn't remember that, or they were too far away to hear any news of it quickly enough, what would you say to them? Would you even tell them, or would you keep their fates a secret from them until they do remember?

[Not that he'll take any advice telling him to keep their fates a secret. He owes his family truth about what happened, or what will happen, in some cases. They deserve to know that, at least.

He just doesn't know when and how to do it.

The rest of the video's unfiltered, and about a lighter subject matter than the first question:]

I've heard tell of something called Valentine's Day. [Look, he works at a cafe, and they've been stringing up paper hearts for the past few days to hook in Travellers. He has some very rudimentary knowledge of it.] As far as I know, it's a day set aside for those you care for. I would ask, what would you do for them for the day?

[The thing is, Annie's done this more than once. Waking up and knowing, somehow, that he's gone. It hasn't gotten any easier, but there are no hysterics when she turns on her bracelet. No tears, no raging at the unfairness of it all, only a weary sort of resignation.]

Finnick Odair is... I don't think he's here anymore. I can't find him anywhere, and he isn't in the contact list, so. I thought those who knew him should be told.

What up, bitches. I would ask if anyone missed me, but I don't think there was even time for that.

[Because someone's taken a quick trip home and seems no worse for wear.]

I guess we're supposed to take our quests one at a time, even if the streets here aren't exactly paved with gold. I gotta admit though, I was really looking forward to kicking some flying monkey butt.

[Private to Dean]

So when are we gonna talk about the whole death thing?

[Anonymous Video]

[The feed begins, and there isn't a soul in sight. Rather, it appears to be someone's room, but given that there is a bright pink cloth spread over the bedding that certainly doesn't match up with Freya's House colors, it would be difficult to determine anything from that.

However, the bedspread isn't the real eye catcher; in the middle of this is an ancient journal, and it's on these pages that the camera zooms. Much of the text is blacked out, but certain phrases and words do stand out.]

████████████ series of tall mountains and deep canyon near the kingdom of Svartalfheim.

Unfortunately, the Earth Giants no longer exist within that place - or indeed, anywhere in Yggdrasil. ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ the fall of Laufey █████████████████████████████████ the end of the Earth Giants. What choice did we have? █████████████ was unnatural. ██████████████████████████ wrong.

There was no other option. We had to abandon the survivors. ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

[After focusing on this page for a good few minutes - plenty enough time to read through what text is visible - the feed will end only to be followed shortly by...]

[Anonymous Text]

I received something interesting over the holidays. It's a pity that little battle took up so much time, but now that we have done our part, I thought it would be a good time to bring this up.

It seems the gods haven't been entirely transparent with us, now have they? Based on the other books found in the library, this is most likely referring to someplace called Ginnungagap. You can look it up if you want, but good luck. The gods have blacked out anything important. Or at least... most of what was important.

I can't be the only one curious about this, can I?

[The scene opens up to Ellie's face. It's dark, and there's blood on her cheeks, smeared back into her hair. There are tears in her eyes, and she's fucking frantic.]

SOS- fuck, we- we need a healer.

[Over the top of her voice is another, almost shouting 'no, we don't!']

Gelfion Park, we've got-

[Her voice breaks.]

Two dead.


( (Cut for blood and gore.) )

[When Skuld appears on Asgard's network, she is the picture of regal composure - perfectly groomed and solemn of face, a far cry from the dirty, soot-covered refugee that arrived the day before. Only when she speaks can some of the frayed edges be noted, but never to the point of hysteria; she is still a queen, and this is a royal duty.]

Travellers of Asgard. For those whom I did not have the pleasure of meeting on my last occasion to visit this city, my name is Skuld, and I am ruler of the elven kingdom of Alfheim. While it pleases me to speak with all of you again, I must regretfully inform you that it is on a very dire matter indeed.

[She glances down at her hands, ensuring that they are still steady where she's folded them in her lap, then back up again with iron determination.]

( Cut for Skuld's loquaciousness. TL;DR: things are, in fact, hitting the fan in elfland. )

[And indeed, her speech is done. The gods will be backing her on matters relating to Asgard, which will likely be the most pressing concerns for those that live here, but she will take any questions about Alfheim directly. And of course, it will likely be her who tries to soothe those angered by this speech.]

[River is awake early, the sun is just peaking above the horizon when she makes the message. She looks tired and maybe like she's been crying but most of the signs of her tears are already gone. She stares into the camera for a few moments, saying nothing, but then she opens her mouth.

No words come out.

She closes it again, biting her lip. It's clear she wants to say something but the words don't want to come out. It's like they're caught, tangled against her tongue and teeth and she feels like they're going to choke her if she doesn't get something out soon.

There's panic slowly welling up in her expression but still, no noise comes.

Finally, after biting a hole into her mouth, she manages to get a few words out, though it's clearly not what she meant to be saying.]

True names, names that we keep in our hearts, names that we wish to share with those closest to us. Clocks that tick in our heads, tickticktick. Like a time bomb, going to go off. You explode and they see who you are. True names fall from your mouth and you're screaming them into the wind. Screaming, screaming screaming.

And if you're lucky, no one will hear you and you can pretend to be who you were, pretend and wear the masks and be the person you want them to think you are.

And if you're not? Then there's no point in masks anymore, is there? No more hiding, no more pretending.

[She closes her eyes, shaking her head. That wasn't entirely what she was trying to say, not at all really. She was scared, tired and lonely and none of that was what she was going for but it's what happened and she doesn't know how to take it back.]

[The video clicks on with Harry sitting in a seat in his office. The office itself seems a bit sparse, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that Harry looks agitated. He's pleased that Voldemort has slipped up enough, but it means he's careless; it means it will be difficult to stop him from hurting others. The fact that he's been outed the way he has been means that the individual who did so doesn't look much better.

Not that Harry's against things being carved into his skin. It's a dark thought, though, and one he's not acting on.]

Hello, everyone.

[A simple beginning, but he soon continues, as if he's reading a slightly prepared speech:]

I'm here to tell you about Tom Marvolo Riddle. He also goes by "Lord Voldemort" on this network, and had my bracelet not come off during the recent battles, I would have warned you all about him sooner. I apologise for that. It was a mistake on my part. I meant to do it sooner, even, but I worried that it would bring people greater harm. I ... er, I'm really sorry for that, too. [He settles into his seat.] He's someone who's very dangerous. Back home, I defeated him, but "defeating" someone is not always the easiest of tasks, you see. He's someone who fears death, and Asgard chose to hand him exactly what he wanted all along: immortality. Only at the same time, it stripped him of his power. So, he doesn't much care about that. He wants it both ways, and he came very close to achieving it back home.

[Harry isn't going to explain that part, though.]

What's important is that Voldemort is not to be trusted. He hurt a friend of mine, and that's why I decided to do this as quickly as possible. I don't even know who else he has hurt. I know about his life. He started as an orphan, and even as a little boy, he tortured people and scared them just because he could. He saw power as a means of opening up the world to him. But that wasn't all. See, he's someone who feels like he's entitled to what belongs to him. Answers, objects, and little things like that. He obsesses, he chooses "equals," and he doesn't care about anyone or anything. He has no real love for his "followers," also known as Death Eaters, and he uses them.

Well, actually, he's rather quite incapable of love.

He's young now, but he won't stop hurting people until he dies. He is very clever, and he would be a useful ally to Asgard if only because it would help him go home. After all, he has a future left for him where he kills a great number of people. Including my parents. [He pauses, gaze steady.]

He will seek means to become powerful. Tom's very fond of that, and he's already sought some of them here. My recommendation is that if you are helping him, you stop. You don't try to make him better. He doesn't want to be better. He doesn't want to love, and he can't. Don't see him as someone who can help you in a pinch. He sees power as a means of manipulating others. He gains followers so that they can die in his place.

I can and will answer any questions you have about him. My only request is that you call him Tom Riddle. He doesn't deserve to be known as "Lord Voldemort." He should be known as who he really is. He's ashamed of who he is, and where he came from. He's lived his life trying to be somebody else, but he will always be a boy with the same roots available to him.

[He stops speaking momentarily, looking somewhat weary. That was a lot.]

I will add one more thing. He's not more important than the war efforts or saving Asgard. I imagine he would rather like to be, but I think we should remember that we have more important things to worry about than him. Avoid him, disable him at all costs, but do not let him be more important. He is prone to hurting nearly everyone here, and he will do it if the opportunity presents itself. But he is not Thiazi, nor is he the grey sickness. And he'd agree, I think, but I guess not enough to keep others from finding him out.

I think we should all thank him for being so open about that. That makes our ability to overlook him much easier.

[Harry looks as if he's ready to cut the transmission, but he realizes one final thing.]

Er ... and I'm sorry to everyone he's hurt. Or anyone he will send Barty Crouch Jr. to hurt. The two of them are dangerous. While I say they're unimportant in light of the war efforts, that doesn't mean I don't ... I mean, I do care. A lot. If you'd like to talk about it, please let me know.

Right, that's all.

[edit, made about five minutes later]

[Most of the edit is is a link to a video where Tom Riddle is standing in his bedroom. The video lasts long enough to get a good view of his face.]

This is his face.

[ Strange, how the peculiar hush unique to libraries is preserved even across the far-flung branches of Yggdrasil.

Loki is smiling in his singular way, with neither joy nor amusement to be found. He lounges in the simple chair as if enthroned, a sprawl of artless limb and glinting eye. To his left, a stack of books can be seen in the fringe of the screen, settled neatly one atop another. Arranged as carefully as Loki himself is.

And he shifts forward, filling the frame. Despite his best efforts, he last few days have proved fruitless for him: he has read and read and read again the paltry knowledge that the false-Allfather's house of books had held. He has gone through the network's history with a fine-toothed comb. He knows that he has neither anonymity or obscurity as his allies, though blessed be those in their naivete who would believe him thus crippled.

His smile quiets. ]

A curiosity to discuss, my fellow denizens of — [ his gaze flicks askance, his shoulders rising in a show of nonchalance ] — Asgard. All things must end, so that all things may begin again. Life. Death, also. It is the prescribed way, if one were to believe the philosophy of the Gods.

[ The Gods, he says, with no small amount of irony. ] Why, then, have we been harnessed and put to plow, as lowing cattle must be? You and he and she and Loki Silvertongue, too? Ragnarok will fall. The end of the world will come to pass, whether or not the false deities of this painted playhouse take yours and my freedom and make a mockery of all that we are.

Does it not fill you with rage?

[ In one swift movement, he draws his hands up, pressing them flat against the tabletop. His voice curls into a murmur. ]

Our rage heats in the same crucible. Let us not let it fall to waste.

[ At first Jesse was about to do a video post, but chickened out at the last minute. He really doesn't feel all that comfortable showing off his face on a strange world in a stranger network.

Too bad he didn't think to post this anonymously. ]



hi i'm Jesse. i read that letter the bracelet showed me. does this mean we are going to be therapists? i don't know how that works, i don't even have a sofa for people to lie in and talk about their problems.

[ He hopes not that's not the case. He can barely handle his own sense of self, let alone everyone else. ]

i'm in house freyr. i went there. i like the slide there. are there any places that have something like that? with slides i mean not the god houses.