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

[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. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[They're both teary messes, faces and eyes damp, and Claire does smile. She's always believed the things he's told her simply because of his obvious sincerity. That hasn't changed. They kiss again, and when she pulls back, it's just to make something clear.]

You're still as charming and handsome as ever.

[seventeenfortythree]

Och, I feel like an auld man.

[ He's felt like one since his twenties though; his body hasn't been through much gentle use. Reaching into the pocket of his coat and after hesitating for a moment, Jamie pulls out spectacles, showing them to her. Then, he puts them on. ]

Once, I had the eyes of a hawk, but the years of living wi' out adequate light has diminished it, a bit. I only need to wear them for reading and such.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Oh, but he looks so distinguished in them. Claire's smile is warm as she takes in the sight of Jamie in spectacles, so different and yet so familiar, and pats the breast pocket of her coat. Empty, save for a pen and her name tag. Must have left them in the car.]

I need them, too. For looking at things that are far off. Realized I had a hard time reading signs on the road a while back.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie smiles and it's so warm at her. ]

I dinna look like someone's grandfather?

[ He imagines the way she must look in spectacles and it's enough to make his hand raise to let his fingers glide next to her eyes, by her temples. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[That puts some of the worry about her appearance to rest, seeing him fret. She's never cared overly much about her glasses or her grey hair or the lines on her face until about ten minutes ago.]

No. [There's a laugh in her voice and a smile on her lips that reaches her eyes.] No, not at all. I like it.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie has to kiss her again, to see that smile, to even hear a hint of her laugh. ]

Christ, I missed ye, Sassenach. I'd like to have ye somewhere alone, private, but there's more to tell ye. And I promised our daughter if I found ye here, I would bring her to you.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Private. Christ. The thought has her pulse racing even more than it is. She hasn't been with a man in over a decade.

It has to be like riding a bicycle, right? Claire takes a deep breath, looking into Jamie's eyes, and looking over him again.]

You look--healthy. I'm glad.

[Better than dead.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ There's much that happened to Jamie. He's glad she wasn't there for it, he's glad that she was safe because he couldn't have born her pain. He isn't sure if he can find the strength within him to tell her how terrible it was.

In the same breath, he knows he can't gloss over it. She wouldn't let him get away with it. ]

I've been back at Lallybroch for a little while now. Near on a year, but no' quite.

[ Christ, there's so much to tell her. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Lallybroch. Her heart tightens.]

And Fergus? Jenny, Ian, the children? Are they--?

[Well, after the fighting, and the clearances. She can't the redcoats not harassing them given that Red Jamie once was laird.

Assuming Fergus made it back.]

[seventeenfortythree]

Fine and well.

[ He kisses her forehead softly in reassurance. ]

Fergus, he lost a hand to the Redcoats, but I was able to remember the things ye'd taught me, and he survived it.

[ He pauses, reaching for her hand and looking down at her ring, surprised to see it, this piece that doesn't match anything else about her. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

Lost a hand?

[Fine and well's relief is shattered in the next breath. But, Jamie saved him, and Claire tries to reel in the horror on her face.

She almost misses that he's looking down at her ring.

Did he expect her to have gotten rid of it? Just the thought makes her stomach lurch further.]

I never took it off.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie swallows, knowing he needs to circle back, but he pauses, looking up into her eyes. ]

Do ye want to hear of all of it, here?

[ He asks that quietly. There are things he needs to tell her, desperately. But it doesn't have to be right now. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

Is it that bad?

[Of course it is.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ He pauses. Going back, all the way back. ]

Johnathan Randall struck me down on the battlefield. But I still landed a killing blow to him. He died, bleeding on top of me.

[ And that's just the beginning. ]

None of it is prettier, Claire.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[It all played out according to history. Randall died, thank God, but she can't imagine the horrors Jamie saw. Her own memories of war--both of them--occasionally pop up to bother her, but she was never a solider on the field.]

I want to know it. All of it, but... when you're ready. It looks like we have nothing but time.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie reaches out to gather her into his arms, tucking her close and rubbing her back slowly. ]

Christ, I canna believe we're here together. Brianna said it would be another two years before ye returned to me still.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Claire breathes out, letting herself sink into him, cheek against his shoulder and arms around him.]

None of this makes any bloody sense but I don't care.

[They can be a family.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie turns his head a little, to be granted access to her neck with his lips. ]

I dinna think I care either, Sassenach. No' when I have ye in my arms this way.

[ He noses into her hair, trying to get used to this new way she smells. ]

Ye smell different. Still there, under it all. And no' bad. Only...different.

[nineteenfortyfive]

I hope I don't smell bad.

[A good sign, if she can joke. He's got her covered in goosebumps from that necking, now.]

You've got less fat to you.

[Not that he ever had much to begin with, but even now she can tell his body is tighter. More lines and angles and edges.]

[seventeenfortythree]

There's no' much to eat in prison, historically.

[ Said wryly. ]

No' much but scraps for a servant, as well. But now I'm home, and Jenny feeds me six times a day, seems like.

[ Before nine months ago, he hadn't been a free man in a very long time. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Leave it to Jamie to talk about imprisonment and servitude so casually. Claire leans back, shaking her head.]

Now you're here.