Every hero accidentally does something that gets the town talking on their journey to harness their newfound abilities and powers. In Iron Man (2008), Tony Stark was caught testing out his Iron Man suit by Rhodes in Afghanistan. Barry Allen, the Flash, was briefly captured on a security camera in Justice League (2021). It would be no different for our protagonist, especially when training in a country whose population hits just above 366,000. I also think that the protagonist would utilize social media to send the message to the world: that your crimes will not go unpunished.
Social Media Posts
I filmed three TikToks surrounding the Younger Futhork rune Yr, which symbolizes death. Interestingly, Yr is the upside version of life and protection. I needed to make two things for these videos: a burned piece of paper and fake blood. For the paper, I took a lighter and burned the edges. I had to do this outside since the kitchen was starting to smell like a bonfire, and my dog was having a sniffing fit. For the blood, I mixed 3/4 cup of corn syrup, 1/4 cup of water, and a lot of red food coloring. I would have loved the blood to be thicker, but the recipe already made much more blood than I needed. This recipe was so cool, but the only bad thing about it was that it used food dye, which can easily dye your skin. So I had to wear a blue latex glove, which contrasted nicely with the protagonist’s black ensemble. It also was a nice tie to Hel, who was blue.
A first video is a random person in Reykjavík stumbling upon a Yr sign written in what appears to be blood. Then, of course, they would post this discovery on TikTok. With all the videos, I wrote the caption in Icelandic (through a translator site, so don’t come after me if it’s wrong). This one says, “these keep popping up around downtown. I think they are written in blood… what do you guys think?”. Also, I put a disclaimer on all the videos stating that this is for a school project so that, hopefully, TikTok does not take them down.
The second video shows the protagonist dripping blood from her glove onto the sign. The caption for the video reads, “you are next,” and it is her warning to her next target. Since the mark is left unnamed, anyone with something to hide is on edge. Suspicions arise in the criminal underworld on who this vigilante is and who is their next target.
I filmed the protagonist drawing the Yr symbol in blood for the third video. Fun fact, this video now has a “sensitive content warning” from TikTok, so I guess the disclaimer worked! This one was pretty easy to do. The hardest part was not making a mess on my mom’s countertop. The captions read, “Hel has spoken, and I have delivered.” I love to imagine that this video would make everyone feel VERY uncomfortable.
I decided to add a little humor to this story. Hel is a solitary goddess, finding solitude in the underworld by herself and not getting her nose into the other God’s business (she is only really mentioned in the story of the attempted resurrection of Baldr). It is safe to assume that she does not know her way around the mortal realm, especially regarding their social connections. Like, as paying for the vodka at Vínbúðin, Iceland’s state liquor store, she also would not understand the concept of a security camera and stared directly at it, leading to this “have you seen this person” sign put out by the store. The phone number is a fake Icelandic number. Despite being a LITERAL goddess, Hel needs to be under constant supervision.
Character Photoshoots
These do not play into the storyline but were just for my pure pleasure. The first picture is me posing with my bloody glove. I thought that the blue made for a nice contrast against the black and white hair. I used a filter on Canva that gave the photo some darker cool tones, which helped to highlight the eyeshadow and the blood.
This is just a picture I took posing with the sign.
These final two are my favorite because they enhance the white and blue of Hel. Once again, using Canva, I chose two filters with blue overlays. One gave everything a blue hue, and the other highlighted only the blues in the photo. I posed with a bottle of vodka, keeping with the idea that Hel stole it from a liquor shop.
