fandomhigh | History: An Exploration of Overlooked Historical Events ; Tuesday ; Period 3

Today, class was meeting in the Danger Shop. That meant Riley had gotten there early just to try and figure out how the dang thing worked so he wouldn't blow anyone up or trap them all in a simulation. And, of course, sending pictures of the whole thing to Ben just to rub in the cool tech he got to play with. Ben started going into a lecture about the inventor of computers and Riley turned his phone off just as the students started filing in.

"Hey guys, welcome to class," Riley said, looking a little strange in his huge coat. But, the reason for that would be made clear soon. "Before we get started, there's coats and gloves up here for you guys. You're gonna need them because today, we're going to the Helike and the winters are brutal."

He waited for everyone to get geared up before he got the simulation going and then it was pretty cold. "Helike is sometimes called a real life Atlantis. The city was founded during the Bronze Age and Poseidon was their patron, meaning he was pretty much the guy they worshiped and prayed to. They were a huge player when it came to monuments of religious importance. Helike was a bustling metropolis, almost like a New York for the ancient times until disaster struck. An earthquake destroyed large swaths of the city and was followed up by a tsunami that pretty much drowned everything. The city lay in ruins and, over the years, silt covered the ruins until everything eventually disappeared. The disaster was blamed on the inhabitants of the city pissing of Poseidon and when you scorn a God, you tend to get pretty messed up."

They weren't going to witness the earthquake or tsunami though. He didn't need to see that or experience it.

"With no sign of the city, people began to think Helike was a myth, not real. But, Helike was real. It wasn't rediscovered until 2001, though. The ruins of this great city lay untouched and buried and forgotten for that long and yet, there were still people interested enough and who had enough belief to keep looking and they found it! Today, we're here in Helike before the disaster. Take a look around, walk the streets, enjoy the ancient times and imagine how people could lose an entire city."

With that, Riley set them off towards the city.

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Listen to the lecture, get your gear on, check out the city from a short distance away!

Cecil put on a coat as quickly as he could. And gloves. And boots. And a hat. And another coat, this one with a hood.

Hey, he was from a desert! He wasn't taking any chances.

Raven had put on . . . a scarf.

She really wasn't bothered by cold, no.

"Do you think you've got enough on?" she teased Cecil. "I can still see a little bit of your face.

"I'm sure I can fix that!" Cecil grabbed a scarf, too. "Won't you be cold?"

"Oh, I don't mind it." She was, in fact, technically only wearing that scarf. She was mimicking her chic little sweater and circle skirt combo. "New York gets at least as cold as this in the winter."

Cecil looked horrified at that. "At least?"

"Well, sure," Raven said. "And I'm not even from that far north." She was maybe enjoying his horrified look a bit too much. "Where are you from, then? The tropics?"

"The desert," Cecil corrected. "I mean, not that the nights can't get a bit chilly, but - snow?"

"Of course!" Raven said. "What's the point of winter if you don't get any snow?"

"It doesn't have one?" Cecil guessed. He'd never seen much point in it himself, to be honest. Maybe that was because of the lack of snow?

"It's be pretty boring if it were just always hot," Raven said. Also, it would be sweaty. "And just think of all the lost fashion statements."

"It's sort of cold at night," Cecil offered. He wasn't going to argue the boring part, though he'd never really thought of it that way. Then again, Night Vale's weather was less boring than most.

It tended to come with a musical number, for one thing.

"I wonder how cold it'll get around here," Raven said. "I haven't been in Fandom for a winter, yet. Maybe it'll snow actual glitter or something."

"That would be nifty." Cecil grinned at her. "How long have you been here, then?"

"Just since the beginning of the summer. I was nervous at first, but it grew on me very quickly."

People sometimes randomly changed shape around here. It gave her hope.

"It's a nice place," Cecil agreed. "Though I'm really having a hard time getting used to the humidity."

Because that was the weirdest thing, clearly.

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Kathy gave him a chin nod. She wasn't bundling up quite that heavily, but she wasn't that far behind, either.

It got cold in LA, sure. But not cold like this!

Cecil grinned back at her. "I think most of the people here must be - what's the opposite of cold-blooded? Super-warm-blooded?"

"Maybe they've all gotten frostbite already," Kathy suggested. "And so can't feel anything anyway."

...How fast could frostbite set in? Kathy was worried about her toes.

"Maybe they were born without cold receptors." Was there such a thing? Cecil wasn't sure, but it seemed plausible.

"I think I got theirs instead then." Kathy didn't realize that Cecil wasn't being facetious. "Where're you from? I'm from LA, you know? We don't do winter there, not so much."

"Night Vale? It's not that big a city. A little south and east of you. And also not very wintry!"

"Let's sit in the back and let the other kids break a trail through the snow and ice," Kathy decided, as if she wasn't the type to be at the front of something new and educational. "We can go in after."

"That sounds like a very good idea." Cecil wasn't the biggest student, either, so letting someone else do the forging ahead sounded great.

When someone told a Canadian to bundle up, this Canadian, at least, believed him. Rilla was in a coat and gloves and wishing for a warmer hat.

But not a green one. She loooooathed her green winter hat.