ASGARD GENESIS - TEST DRIVE #1

[asgardmods]

the test drive meme. ❧ let's do this. Anyone can post to the test drive meme, including duplicates! Please put your character name and canon in the title of your comment. All threads are considered open to everyone! Tag around and make some friends (or enemies)! If you decide to apply to the game, you can use your TDM threads for your app samples! You only need to provide seven comments if you use TDM samples. You can't be "late" to a TDM! This will be considered open until the next one goes live next month. You can make up your own scenario, interact with one of the locations in the game, use the welcome process of your character selecting a god house, or use our optional prompt below! You do not need to pick a god house to play on the TDM! You can have your character still in the process of discussing/deciding/despairing instead. If you are accepted to the game, you can keep TDM threads as game canon as long as you fudge some of the details depending on your original thread. If you aren't sure exactly how to do this, you can always ask a mod. Reserves open on May 25 at 12:01AM PST and close on May 31 at 11:59PM PST. Applications open on June 1 at 12:01AM PST and close on June 7 at 11:59PM PST. Please always feel free to contact the mods if you have any questions! Have fun, dear (future?) Wanderers. ♥ ❧ optional scenario. As you enter Asgard proper, many of the natives have gathered into curious crowds to greet these mysterious children of the World Tree. Some of them carry baskets of flowers and nervously offer one to any Wanderers that come near. They are vibrant and colorful, picked from the wilds surrounding Asgard, and they might have an odd effect on your character if they sniff the flowers directly. Purple flowers will make your character very giggly and easily amused by everything they see and hear. Orange flowers will make your character feel very warm all over, like the sun is beating down on them directly. Blue flowers will make your character somewhat short and impatient with anything that seems like even a minor inconvenience to them. Effects of the flowers can wear off anywhere between a few minutes to an hour. And for those new to Asgard, this scenario aligns with some of the general curses we might have in the game! navigation.

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II.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Now he knows why his heart brought him here.

In the last eighteen years, he's only thought of Claire. He's seen her, often in his dreams, his wife in all different ways. At first, it was too difficult to picture her face, to even think of her. It made his chest ache harder than the usual longing soreness. Eventually, he would think of her and imagine the way she'd changed while pregnant with their child, the way she did with Faith. He would imagine the way she looked in her shift with her hair loose. The way she looked standing in the window of their room at Lallybroch. Thinking of her became the only way to get through his nights.

So, when he sees her from behind, he knows. Even in clothes that have him wondering why she's so indecent in public and with hair bone straight, he knows his wife. He'd seen her so often, real as this, but her back was never too him. She always faced him, reached close, but never touched. It's different for a reason, it has to be, and so he swallows heavily and calls out, his voice carrying. ]

Sassenach.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[For almost two decades, she's had to put Jamie away in a box. Impossible to forget, when she's had Bree to love and raise and see all the ways she's like her father, but she couldn't grieve for him every day. She wouldn't be able to function as a mother, as a surgeon. She's only dared to speak about him once, since leaving Scotland: the night Frank died. The last thing he heard her say was the painful truth. The amount of time for her to forget Jamie Fraser and all the love she had for him didn't exist.

Since then, life's resumed. In an awful way it's been easier. Quiet. Bree mourned, and Claire mourned, but gone was the cloud of tension in the home between her and Frank. She could breath easier. She spent time with her daughter and worked and planned the occasional weekend outing because it's what Frank would have wanted and Claire knows how much Bree loved him and missed him.

And now she's far from that, confused, and actually thinking she's gone mad.

Hearing Jamie's voice doesn't help her think otherwise.

She freezes and doesn't turn around. She has to be hearing things. God, but her heart is pounding.

Please, just leave me alone, she thinks. All she wants is to wake up in her own bed and resume the life she made for herself out of the ruins of Culloden.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ He understands. He knows what it is to hear the voice of the person you love. He knows what it is to hear a voice and look frantically around even though it's impossible.

He'd learned to ignore it, but the frozen pause and tight shoulders were always his tell. They're hers, too. So, Jamie begins to stride forward, still speaking. ]

Ye are blood of my blood, and bone of my bone. [ When he's closer, he speaks again. ] I give ye my body, that we two might be one. [ And now, he's right behind her. ] I give ye my Spirit, 'til our life shall be done.

[ The last time he said the words was eighteen years ago at the stones. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[She feels faint. Luckily, there's a large planter nearby, and Claire reaches out to steady herself. Part of her wants to run away from whatever is behind her that sounds like a ghost she's loved every day for years, but the stronger part wants to see. To know if she's mad or not. With a visible inhale, she forces herself to do an about face.

An already pale woman somehow manages to go nearly transparent.]

Jamie?

[It's a whisper he can only hear because he's so close. She stares at him, eyes looking over a face she knows. No, not all the lines there now, but it's still him.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Christ, she looks like she's about to faint, and he reaches out to steady her with a hand against her lower back.

It's the only thing that keeps him from falling over, himself. But she's real. She's solid in his arms and his breath is stuck in his throat. His other hand reaches out to cradle her cheek in his hand. ]

It's truly you. [ He pauses, swallowing. ] Claire.

[ He says her name out loud for the first time in years. Not quite eighteen, but a long, long while. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[When he touches her, she jumps. She doesn't mean to, but she doesn't expect him to actually be real. She can feel his hand on her and his skin is warm against hers on her cheek, and she hear him breathing and he's alive and well and not bones long lost in the mud and blood.]

How?

[The hand that reaches up to touch his face trembles.]

I thought you were dead.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie exhales, closing his eyes as his forehead slowly comes to rest against hers. ]

Nearly. But no' quite, Sassenach.

[ His eyes open again, needing to see her face, eyes roaming her features to see how she's changed. How she's the same. The grey in her hair streaks through the black and he reaches out to touch it lightly. ]

I'm here now. I'm here wi' ye.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[He's real. Real and alive. Claire leans into the touch, almost dazed, and touches her fingertips to the hair by his temples. He's got grey, too.]

You... survived? Culloden?

[There's a growing horror in her voice as she leans back to properly look at him again. She's not sure she's blinked since he's appeared.

He survived and all these years she's had no idea.]

[seventeenfortythree]

Aye, I did, Claire.

[ He can't stop touching her reverently, as if she's made of something breakable. ]

Though I verra nearly bled to death. And I was ready to be executed but--

[ It doesn't matter. He wasn't. ]

I didna ken before, why I lived when I wanted to do nothing but die. It was because I was fated to be reunited wi' ye again.

[nineteenfortyfive]

I could have come back. [Could she have?] If I had known, I could have gone back to you.

[Except there was no way to know, not really. And no way she could leave Bree, and no way to live with a man that was likely on the run, with a price on his head.

Still, she looks about ready to vomit with the realization.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie presses his lips to her forehead, closing his eyes again, trying to soothe. ]

No. No, Sassenach. It was too dangerous; I had to live in a cave, I was jailed. They would have killed ye the moment they took me.

[ He swallows, stepping back and tilting her chin up with his fingertips. ]

Brianna would no' have had the life ye gave her.

[ Surprise. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[The soothing isn't going very well, and he'll feel her shake, but any protest she has on her tongue dies when he hears her say Brianna's name.]

What?

[Maybe she is mad. There's no way he could know about Bree. A figment of her imagination would, of course. She's done a good job at making him look older. That's new. Whenever she would imagine him, dream of him, he'd always be as young as he was when she last saw him.]

[seventeenfortythree]

She's here as well, Claire.

[ Jamie's thumb strokes her temple now, tears falling freely, easily and quietly. ]

I left her to rest, but we've been trying to find ye, hoping--Christ, I didna want to get my hopes up, but here ye are, living and breathing in front of my verra eyes.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[This, on top of everything else, just has her feel like she's floating inside her head. What draws her back, away from the greying edges of her vision, are his tears. Immeadiately, her own eyes burn.]

Don't cry. [She manages a small, watery smile, tears welling.] You'll get me started.

[Not that they've ever minded, crying with one another. Claire reaches up with both hands to cup his face, wiping away the tears with her thumbs.]

This doesn't feel real.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ When she holds his face, it makes his eyes close and more tears fall over her fingers now. ]

I ken it is. Because in my dreams ye could never touch me, Claire. Ye came to me so often, when I was in a fever or so lonely I knew I must die, but...ye never touched me.

[ He presses his cheek into her hand. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[And now they're both crying. Claire can't believe this, but if it's a dream, then she's happy to indulge.]

I can touch you now.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie's nose nuzzles along the side of hers. ]

Claire, I havena kissed ye in such a long time.

[ He exhales, wetting his lips. ]

May I kiss ye now?

[nineteenfortyfive]

Yes.

[Her reply comes without hesitation.]

You may.

[If he doesn't mind the tears. There's a smile on her lips, at least.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie closes the distance between them after another brief moment of hesitation.

The press of her lips to his still feels the same; in an instant, he feels as though he remembers a hundred kisses that felt exactly like this one. Those kisses from their wedding night; timid, getting to know one another again.

He can't believe she's here to kiss, and when he breaks the kiss, it's only to let out one quiet sob. ]

Christ, I ached for ye Claire; it was as though one half of me was gone.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[This is real. This isn't a kiss she could ever dream. Nothing ever came close to the soft warmth of his lips, or the way he'd hold her when they kissed. She cries, too--but it's easier for her to get a hold of herself, if only because she wants to hold his face and kiss him again.]

I missed you.

[Claire isn't nearly as eloquent.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ She never has been, and it's never been a problem. Jamie's lips find hers again, and then he tugs her to sit, on the bench he'd been occupying before outside of the hospital. ]

Do ye ken, I...I'm no' sure why I'm here. At least, I was no' sure before. Only that I thought if you were here somewhere in this place, ye'd be drawn toward the hospital.

[ He's convinced they're like magnets, pulled toward one another once close enough. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Claire keeps his hands as they sit. Glancing down, she can see that time had passed. The scars have faded, but she can still make out the faint lines on his fingers and the dot on the back of his hand.]

I don't understand any of this but I'm so--[The knot in her throat chokes her up. Oh, she wishes she never had to leave him, but she's so glad he didn't die afraid and alone and in pain on that battlefield.]

I'm so glad you're alive.

[seventeenfortythree]

Christ, so am I. Now, in any case.

[ He was actually trying, too, before this. Freshly home at Lallybroch, where the family hardly knew him anymore. He couldn't speak of Claire to them and let them think she was dead all this time. But now, at least, he's trying again to live. ]

Ye look so different, but exactly the same. Still the bonniest lass I'll ever ken, no matter what.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Bringing attention to her appearance has her cheeks flushing pink.]

I don't think I aged as well as you.

[The grey is much, much more noticeable in her hair.]

[seventeenfortythree]

Oh, Claire, no.

[ Jamie breathes that out quietly, reaching now to cradle her face as she did for him. His eyes might water a little again. ]

I've found my way back to ye, Claire. I promised that I would.

[ He swore to her, no matter what it took, he would find her again. ]

I've longed to see your face. Your smile.

[ His thumb moves over the apple of her cheek, then ghosts across her bottom lip. ]

If I say you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, still, I beg ye to believe it.

[ There's no room for debate, and Jamie kisses her again, his hand resting now at the side of her neck, able to feel her pulse with his thumb. ]