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.

Comments

[mograidh]

It turns out that straight hair is more the fashion in the sixties and not so much in the 18th century. Also, not the biggest priority.

[ There's a brief smirk on her face before she takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Like Jamie, it seems, her mother's memory is off, their timelines not aligned. She also just looks a little younger. ]

I know I look - [ She glances down at what she's wearing before lifting her eyes to her mother's again. ] Well. You've probably figured it out. I went through the stones to find you and Jamie.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[There's suddenly a loud buzzing in Claire's ears as her body goes ice cold. 18th century. Through the stones. Find you. Jamie. The words coming out of her daughter's mouth don't compute despite her looking the part of the story she tells.]

... what?

[She's still holding onto her, hand on her face.]

[mograidh]

[ Surprise, mama!

There's...so much to tell. Too much. Gently, she reaches out to cover her mother's hand, letting out a breath. ]

Maybe we should start with what you last remember? Right before you came here?

[nineteenfortyfive]

[The touch reminds her that she should probably move her hand, so she does, if only just to grasp Bree's fingers.]

I went to work. You were watching television, or trying to find something to watch until your girlfriends picked you up to go shopping for new clothes for school.

[Very helpful, Claire.]

[mograidh]

[ It's not quite specific enough for her so she'll pry a little more. With this question, her voice is noticeably softer, the ache in her heart always present when she thinks of her father. ]

Is daddy...

[ Get it together, Bree. Because if he's not yet gone, her mother will be even more confused. ] Did we lose him?

[nineteenfortyfive]

[The mention of Frank is a knife to the heart. She always hurt for Bree, and she does so now, even if still lost. She gives Bree's hand a squeeze before softly replying.]

About half a year ago, yes.

[She should know this.]

[mograidh]

[ That helps now, and she forges ahead. ]

In another...two years, you're going to go back to Jamie.

[ And that's...probably enough of a shock that she won't say anything else yet. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

I don't understand.

[She's talking about the stones and Jamie and wearing 18th century clothes and Claire very suddenly decides she needs to sit down. So she does. Right where she was standing.]

[mograidh]

Mama. [ Worried, Bree sits with her, wrapping a strong arm around her waist. ] I'm sorry, I know this is a lot to take in.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[She doesn't need to worry her. Claire just can't concentrate on standing and listening and absorbing all of this.]

I... I don't even know where to begin.

[Said like she has the story to tell. What she means is she has no idea where to begin asking questions.]

[mograidh]

[ Leave that to her this time. ]

So, obviously I know everything about Jamie. Your life with him. [ Again, obvious and redundant, but a starting point for the rest to flow. ]

It took a while, but we managed to find out that Jamie was alive. He'd survived Culloden. [ She should mention, probably, that they were aided in their search for answers by Roger Wakefield, but that's a bit of a minefield for her right now. She'll tell if asked, though. ]

I wanted you to go back to him, you had to go back to him. Wherever he is, that's where you belong. I didn't know it at first, but I do now.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Frank had his conditions. One being that, as long as he lived, Bree wouldn't know anything about Jamie Fraser. The thought had crossed her mind more than once, since the funeral. Telling her everything. But how could she uproot her reality like that? Tell that the man she loved more than anyone wasn't actually her father? It was easier to keep up the lie. She wonders what switch flipped to make Claire tell her the truth.

She imagines Bree is glossing over a lot for the sake of simplicity and Claire's feelings. There's something different about her, more than the clothing and the hair and whatever time has passed. She regards her differently. Warmer, maybe. And perhaps there's something else.

Or she's just imagining it in the rush of information today.]

I can't imagine willingly leaving you.

[It wouldn't be like her moving away for college or a career. It'd be goodbye, forever. Or what would seem to be forever.]

[mograidh]

[ She's glossing over details for two reasons, one of them perhaps selfish on her part. She wants to get to the heart of the matter, the most important information her mother would need to know. And she harbors so much regret and guilt for the way she'd treated her when the truth about Jamie had come out. Maybe her mother never would have spoken the truth had Bree not poked around and pried the information out of her. It's hard to know how things might have been different, but she believes they ended up exactly where they needed to be. ]

You're right about that. You didn't want to leave me, I had to talk you into it.

[ She squeezes her hand softly. ]

You gave him up for me, and I wanted to give him back to you.

[ There is, of course, so much more to tell. Out of everything, though, what's been weighing on her most prominently is what happened at the tavern, what Bonnet did to her. She almost wishes her mother just knew somehow, that she would never have to openly speak of it again, and that she could just be held tightly enough to banish the memories. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[You gave him up for me, and I wanted to give him back to you. The words strike her deeply. It doesn't quite feel like a weight's been lifted off her chest, now that Bree knows the truth and seems to accept it, but it changes something.]

Oh, Bree.

[How can she do anything but pull her in for another hug?]

My sweet girl.

[As her mother, she doesn't make it a habit to let her daughter see her cry. Right now, however, she's struggling with keeping the tears at bay.]

[mograidh]

[ She'll never regret making that choice and supporting her mother in going back through the stones. It was the best thing that could have happened for her, she'll never believe otherwise. But she still missed her with a depth and magnitude far exceeding what she'd imagined.

She'd gone back in time to warn them of their impending deaths by fire, that was true, but it was more than that. Bigger than that.

She doesn't belong in their time now, it shouldn't be home, but it is, and she's been in no hurry to leave.

For now, she's content in her mother's arms again, holding onto her tightly. ]

You were with him for three years before I followed you through the stones.

[ She'll pause again here because why she followed them is another shock, she knows. News of their own death, when they'd only just found each other again. She so badly doesn't want to overwhelm her. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[She can't imagine going back. She can't imagine three years without Bree. The thought makes her heart ache, and she kisses her cheek.]

Why?

[That she could even go through the stones isn't terribly surprising. Geillis could do it. It wasn't only just her. Maybe it's something in certain people, and it can be passed down.]

What happened?

[If it was merely because she missed her mother, three years was a long time to wait.]

[mograidh]

[ Instinctively, her head comes to rest against her mother's shoulder for a moment as she speaks. ]

I knew you found each other and I was curious about your life together. If you were okay. I wasn't expecting to find an obituary in an old newspaper.

[ She lifts her head again to look at her. ]

Both of you died in a fire, but the year was smudged so I couldn't figure out if it was ten months away or ten years. I just knew I had to go back to warn you.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[For all that she's still wrapping her mind around Asgard, being with Jamie again, and Bree coming to find them, the news of her apparent death doesn't garner much of a reaction beyond a hmm in the back of her throat.

It's something to think about later. Not that it matters much now, does it? Claire looks at Bree, taking a deep breath.]

You've got Jamie's courage, plain enough.

[mograidh]

[ Her mother would know better in that regard, though she feels like she's come to know Jamie so much better in just a few weeks.

Still, there's a quirk of her lips as she smiles softly, tilting her head a little. ]

I think I've got yours, mama.

[nineteenfortyfive]

To tell you the truth, I don't know if I'm really absorbing any of this.

[Said almost with a laugh. Maybe it doesn't really matter as long as she has Bree. And Jamie. They could be the family she never dared to hope for because it's always been impossible to grasp. The thought of Bree in the 18th century is a terrifying one, in some regards: so many places were lawless and a far cry from Boston.

(Though after all the misadventures and dangerous encounters, it's a bloody fire that gets them. Go figure.)

And yet. She's not there, or in 1968. She's right here, where Claire can tuck one of her red curls behind her ear.]

I don't know what I'd do in this place without you.

[mograidh]

Without me?

[ It's not that she doubts her mother's love, it's only that she doesn't fully grasp how necessary she really is to her life. For a moment, she wants to remind her mother that Jamie is here. The love of her life. Isn't he the most important in all of this, the missing piece of her heart?

But she hasn't had very long to accept that Jamie is actually alive, and that she goes back to him at some point. By her own admission, it's a lot to take in. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

Yes, without you.

[Blood of my blood and bone of my bone might have been words shared with Jamie, but Bree is her flesh and blood. Her baby, no matter how old. Life with Frank wasn't always easy. It was lonely because she couldn't be herself with her daughter, not entirely, but it wasn't unbearable because of her love for Bree and the joy she brought.]

You're my family.

[Jamie had given her his, in-laws and nieces and nephews, and an adopted son, and even Bree--but Claire kept her, raised her, and loved her all these years.]

[mograidh]

[ Bree is a little freer with her hugs than her mother is likely to remember. And that's exactly what she does now, reaching out to hug her tightly for a moment. She's been reunited with her mother for weeks now, in her timeline, but she wants her to know just how important she is to her, too. ]

I missed you so much, mama. Before I found you again.

[ News of the fire had been the perfect catalyst, something she could rally behind, but the truth is that she would have gone back eventually anyway. For all that she insisted she was fine without her mother, and for all that she assumed time would lessen the sting of her absence, the opposite had proven to be true. She missed her more as the years went on. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Claire's noticed. Bree's being especially affectionate, but she supposes that's what happens when the walls are taken down and the truth made known. In a way, she feels like she's cheated. She didn't have to deal with the fallout of telling the truth and making Bree realize so much of her life wasn't as it seemed.

Not that she'd trade this for anything.]

I missed you, too.

[She can say that with certainty even if she's not the Claire that left her daughter for another time.]

No more of that. I'll have you both, now.

[mograidh]

[ When she pulls back, there's a smile on Bree's face that's both gentle and proud. Proud of her mother, really, for everything she'd gone through, for having the courage to go back to Jamie, for the person she is. ]

He's a good man. You told me that what you felt for Jamie was the most powerful thing you'd ever felt in your life. I see it when you're with him, mama, the way you two are together.