This is Hell

October 2, 2025·40 min·2 clips

A villain declares everyone will die — then Alfie reveals she's had a hidden relic the whole time, announces 'I'm the martyr and that makes you the fool,' and detonates a grenade circle, trapping herself and Robin in an interdimensional in-between.

1. The Hidden People: Ragnarok, Chapter Two, titled 'This is Hell,' is a scripted audio drama by the Dayton Writers Movement featuring a full cast in a Norse mythology-inflected fantasy universe. 2. The episode stars Jordan Lopez, Cora Chypek, Luna Madison, and Megan Rupert in the lead roles, with writing by Chris Burnside and direction by Chris and Megan Burnside; sound design is by Catherine Seaton. 3. The episode's central dramatic arc involves two interleaved storylines: Alfie and Robin stranded in the in-between, and Makenna's group assembling to address the larger threat of realm destruction. 4. The cold open replays the climax from a prior arc: Alfie reveals she holds a relic Fenrir overlooked because he misidentified her as the fool rather than the martyr, delivers 'I'm the martyr and that makes you the fool. Suck it, Robin,' and triggers grenades that send both her and Robin into the in-between. 5. Alfie and Robin's survival in the in-between is played for dark comedy: Robin refuses to eat unknown fruits first because Alfie is tougher and would survive poisoning, Alfie learns to climb trees, and they track time by months. 6. The comedy deepens when Alfie reveals she's been using the Cloak of Fenrir — a magical item that obscures her intentions — to win rock-paper-scissors consistently for weeks, leaving Robin, who identifies as 'the most famous trickster in English literature,' furious at having been out-tricked. 7. Alfie warns Robin that her revenge plan is long-game: she intends to spend 50 years being good company, making Robin genuinely enjoy her presence, so that after Alfie dies of old age, Robin's remaining thousand years will be unbearably lonely. 8. Back with the main group, Makenna, Thomas, Cassidy, and Audrey have been joined by Rain, a high schooler from a different realm who has the ability to hear ghosts. 9. Rain's revelation that she hears the dead is treated as a significant trust moment — she has only ever told one living person before, and the group's acceptance is portrayed as genuine rather than performative. 10. Jormungandr, a creature from Norse mythology who describes himself as a giant serpent, arrives carrying new people from different realms, claiming the tree of Yggdrasil sent him. 11. The cosmological backstory is delivered by Jormungandr: Yggdrasil has eight fully developed realm-branches, previously kept from expanding further by the Neethog, an insatiable dragon that ate the roots, which itself was somehow destroyed. 12. Without the Neethog, the tree grows unchecked, threatening existing realms; Jormungandr wants to find a new Neethog to restore balance. 13. Jormungandr's sister Hel, ruler of Niflheim, has taken a different approach: she manipulated him into transporting her army to Nidavellir, killed all inhabitants, and destroyed that realm's branch, triggering the earthquake the characters felt. 14. The group confirms they witnessed a realm die — billions of lives — and begins to reckon with the stakes of stopping Hel before she destroys further branches. 15. Jormungandr cannot enter the in-between because it is warded at the base of the tree, which is where Alfie and Robin currently are; this makes Cassidy's interdimensional ship the only vehicle that can retrieve them. 16. The episode hints that the Neethog's essence may have survived in one of the assembled characters, setting up a future revelation about one member of the group. 17. A subplot involves Makenna's girlfriend Shaylee, who was in a mountain with a shaman trying to clear rubble and find Alfie; she reports the circle was broken and Alfie wasn't there, confirming the in-between theory. 18. The tone blends high fantasy action and consequence with banter-heavy character comedy — Alfie in particular narrates her own survival like a reality show contestant — giving the episode a signature tone of levity amid stakes. 19. Fans of full-cast audio dramas with Norse mythology worldbuilding, multi-realm fantasy, and character-driven banter (in the style of Welcome to Night Vale or The Magnus Archives) will find this richly produced. 20. New listeners who have not heard prior episodes will be able to follow the in-between storyline and Jormungandr's exposition but will miss the context for character relationships and prior plot threads.

As heard by us

A supernatural trap turns into a fast, high-stakes scramble inside the in-between.

This episode opens with a supernatural ambush and never really lets up. The characters try to talk, bluff, and blast their way out before the place seals them in for good, and the pace keeps tightening the screw.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a magical ambush that ends with everyone trapped in the in-between.

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