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

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie can't help the smile that crosses his features now. ]

She's a proper doctor now?"

[ He hums, low in the back of his throat. ]

She always was one, now she has the title to go wi' it. That's where ye've been living then? The Colonies?

[ He'd hoped that maybe Claire would at least be able to stay in Scotland, but he knows why that didn't happen. At least, he assumes Frank wouldn't allow it, but he'll not say as much to Brianna. ]

[mograidh]

All my life. But then mama took me to Scotland for a trip, shortly after my father died.

[ That's something she realizes she hadn't yet told Jamie. ]

He was...killed in an accident.

[ Her voice gets noticeably quieter for just a moment. ]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ To hear Claire took his daughter home means more to Jamie than he could ever say, but it's followed closely by an ache at his daughter's words. Anything that causes his child pain and grief will always cause his own.

Stopping their walk, he reaches out again with one hand, cradling her cheek. ]

I'm sorry, Brianna, that ye had to lose your father in that way. My own died, when I was no' but a lad, just barely a man. But Frank verra clearly loved ye, and if I can be proud of you already, then I ken the pride he has for ye was beyond what ye even knew off, lass.

[ He can do this, be supportive of the man he's envious. If for no other reason then because he did exactly what Jamie'd hoped. ]

[mograidh]

[ As his hand cradles her cheek, she takes a moment to appreciate how lucky she is, truly. To be loved by two incredible men. This man is still a stranger to her in so many ways, but there's a gentleness to him, so much love in him that she can easily feel. Her heart aches for her daddy, the man who raised her, but she'll always be grateful for the time she got to have with him. And for the time she has now, with Jamie. ]

Thank you, Da. I'm sorry you lost your father, too. [ She tilts her head just slightly, curious, her eyes soft as they seek an answer. ] You're proud of me already?

[seventeenfortythree]

How could I be anything but?

[ Jamie looks at her; it's a father's bias, he knows, but hasn't he earned the right to that, at least? ]

I kent before your mother that she was pregnant wi' ye. There was so much happening, I didna--I wanted her to realize it on her own. But I was proud of ye then, a leannan, when ye were no' but my own secret. I dreamt of everything ye could be and the things ye would do. And I was proud, then, to be your da, Brianna.

cw: hints/mentions of rape

[mograidh]

[ It means so much to hear that, and she doesn't even realize her smile is a little watery in response.

There's a pang in her heart for a moment, though, because she wonders if he'd still be proud of her if he knew what had happened to her in the tavern, the way she'd let Bonnet overpower her. Would he still be proud? Would he be disgusted by it? All the feelings of shame that briefly rise to the surface are quelled quickly before he's likely to have seen anything flicker in her eyes that would betray her. ]

Did you...still think of me sometimes?

[ This is where she'd much rather put her focus, and she clings to that, wanting to hear about their past, about him, her mother, their love for each other and for her. ]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ He would love her the same and try to kill the man who'd touched her. Plain and simple as that.

But her question has his heart shattering and soaring all at once, and he presses his lips to her temple now as he lets himself think of his time spent in a lonely cave a few miles down the road from Lallybroch, in the woods. ]

I didna ken, of course, if ye were a lad or a lass, but once I healed enough, I tried to think of when ye'd be born. I had it figured best I could as somewhere in November, so I picked the middle. And every year, on the fifteenth of that month, I prayed that ye were happy. Alive and well. If I could, I lit a candle. Always I thought of what ye might be doing but never thought of ye as more than my babe who could toddle to me, eager to see me at the end of a long day.

[ Oh, he thought of fatherhood. Until he had dreams that made him ache with longing to see his child, hold his wife. ]

[mograidh]

[ There's another faint smile on her lips, and she has to at least take a moment to confirm for him how close to accurate he was. ]

November 23. My birthday.

[ It makes her chest ache, to know how often she filled his thoughts, even when she was only a dream in his mind, when he didn't know her face or even her name.

She hurts for him, just to hear about what he'd wanted so much, the family he'd hoped to have, but lost. She can never give it back to him, and she wants so much to comfort him somehow. ]

You lost so much. I wish I could - [ What. She doesn't even know. But her hand loosely wraps around his wrist; a measure of comfort. There must be a crack so deep in his heart, how could it ever be fixed now? ]

[seventeenfortythree]

'Tis no' your job to fix things, Brianna. What I lost was nothing compared to knowing no British soldier would kill ye or your mother.

[ He doesn't want her to carry that. But he is pleased to know how close he was to her birthday. ]

Ye are my own, and being able to see ye now is better than anything I could have ever imagined.

[mograidh]

Why can't I fix things?

[ She asks the question with a little smirk, a cheeky one, challenging him just a little, but in a gentle way meant to see if she can bring a smile to his face. ]

[seventeenfortythree]

No' trying to fix the past. To only look back willna help us be present and glad for what we have, and what we can look forward to.

[ He walks with her again, that smile present. ]

Tell me more about what ye like, what brings ye happiness?

[mograidh]

[ He may not realize it, but every now and then, she's sneaking brief glances in his direction, pleased to recognize so much of herself in him. It didn't matter that she couldn't do that with her daddy, she loved him all the same. But this is a new feeling, one of being instantly connected to someone by blood, and she cherishes it. ]

Well, I always enjoyed history, like my father. But I loved math, too, and engineering. That's what I studied in college, actually. Mechanical engineering. Do you know much about that? Machinery and things like that?

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie's captivated just listening to her speak, and he feels his heart swell with pride. That he could have such a canny lass for a daughter. He smiles widely at her. ]

I worked the machinery at the press, as ye ken already. And I've done all sorts of building things. But 'machinery' as far as I ken it may be verra different than what you know.

[mograidh]

I don't know yet what's really available to us here in the way of tools, but if I can teach you anything, I will.

[ But she suspects they'll find even more things they have in common as they talk. ]

I like to draw a lot, too.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ That she likes to draw makes him look at her with even more pride. ]

Do ye ken my mother loved to draw and paint? She paint mine and Jenny's portraits. My brother Willie, too.

[ He smiles softly. ]

What do ye like to draw?

[mograidh]

She did? [ She loves hearing more about her family, too. People she'll never know. ] I draw whatever inspires me, really. Usually portraits of people. Sometimes landscapes. That moment early in the morning when the sun is rising and the valley below is just...lit up and shining. Sometimes I can't think about anything else until I draw it.

[ She didn't mean to, but she realizes she's describing the beautiful landscape surrounding Fraser's Ridge. She hadn't meant to start talking about all of that just yet, but she's let it slip a little. ]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie doesn't truly connect the two, and he's so captivated by the sound of her voice, by the way she describes something so beautiful. It could be anywhere; it could be Scotland.

So, she's off the hook for now. ]

How could ye ever be worrit about me being proud of ye?

[ When he speaks, his voice is suspiciously husky and he clears his throat just a bit. ]

[mograidh]

[ He'll think differently when he knows. She's worried about that, but more than even herself, she doesn't want to put that on either of her parents - if they find mama - right now. That's the last thing any of them need to be worried about.

Smiling softly, she nods a little. ]

Silly of me.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie pulls her close again and kisses her temple once more before they walk a bit more in their search. ]

Did ye arrive wi' your mother, when she returned to me?

[ He has bits and pieces of the story, but now he's ready to understand more, how things came to be as they played out for his daughter. ]

[mograidh]

No, she...she went back alone. I wanted her to go, I practically begged her to because she refused to leave me. You gave up everything, you both did. It seemed only right that you should be able to just be together again.

[ It wasn't an easy decision for either of them by any means, but she knows it was the right one. ]

I went through the stones about three years later.

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie can't help it, his eyes shine with tears, and he clears his throat. ]

Ye did that for us, lass?

[ Jamie stops walking altogether and pulls her tightly into his arms. ]

Ye have your mother's heart, Brianna.

[mograidh]

[ She welcomes the hug, returning it easily. ]

I didn't want to be the reason you had to stay apart.

[seventeenfortythree]

Braw lass.

[ He says that against the crown of her head before dropping a kiss there. ]

Alright, I think we should have a plan now. To find a place to bring your mother to if we do find her.

[mograidh]

[ He's so affectionate, just like he'd been back at Fraser's Ridge, and just like then, she finds herself welcoming it, bringing her closer to him. ]

What do you think? I think it's more practical if we split up now, meet back here in an hour either just to check in, or because we found her. How does right in front of the hospital sound?

[seventeenfortythree]

[ It's hard for him to want to let her out of his sight. If something happens now, he isn't sure what he'll do.

But they'll cover more ground and he knows it. ]

One hour then, lass.

[ Pull it together, Fraser. ]

Right in front of the hospital.