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 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.

[seventeenfortythree]

Now I'm here wi' you.

[ Jamie moves his head now to kiss the top of hers. ]

Our daughter is so beautiful, Claire. She's perfect.

[ His voice is so thick with emotion as he speaks. His child he never thought he'd see with his own eyes. ]

Ye named her after my father, just as ye promised.

[nineteenfortyfive]

She is. She has your hair.

[Here they go again. She thinks he might cry again, and so she cups his face, then coaxes him forward so she can hold him tightly.]

She's so much like you.

[seventeenfortythree]

She told me ye told her everything about me, Claire. All of it.

[ He, of course, doesn't know that it was a terrible argument, so that doesn't get passed on. ]

Two years, Claire, from whatever ye were doing in Boston, ye were going to realize I hadna died.

[ And then, she was going to return to him. If anyone other than Brianna had told him such a thing, he'd never believe it. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

That would make it twenty years since Culloden. Two decades.

[Lost.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie closes his eyes. Two extra years he's gained, at least. ]

We're here now, Sassenach. I'm here.

[ He opens his eyes only to lean in and kiss her, closing them again. He'll dwell on it later, all that he missed. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[They've been apart for longer than they ever knew one another before. God only knows how they've changed.]

And our daughter.

[Grown, now.]

[seventeenfortythree]

The three of us.

[ Saying that makes him grin instead of mourn for the lost time, at least in this particular moment. ]

And all of us, pulled to this house. This Frigg.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[God, that smile. She's missed it so much.]

That sounds awfully like we might be living together.

[seventeenfortythree]

If ye thought I would have it any other way, ye'd be sorely mistaken. I dinna intend to let ye out of my sight ever again.

[ Not literally.

Well, in a few days, not literally. ]

Whatever we need, Claire, we'll do it together. If this is to be our home now, we'll truly make it ours wi' our daughter.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Sweeter words were never said. Abruptly, Claire grabs him and kisses him. Hard.

She's only happy in this moment.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie's more than happy to kiss her back in broad daylight, in front of whatever Gods there are and everyone.

His fingers glide through her hair as he kisses her with all the enthusiasm of a man who hadn't seen his wife in nearly two decades. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Look, if they're sworn to the goddess of fertility, no one should be surprised.

Claire needs oxygen, after thoroughly being kissed and kissing back, and pulls apart from his mouth with a quiet gasp for air.]

You haven't forgotten how to kiss.

[seventeenfortythree]

I may be getting auld, but I havena lost complete control of my faculties just yet.

[ He kisses her again, the corner of her mouth this time, then the opposite side. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[She makes a face at that comment. She's five years his senior.]

You're not getting old.

[Now it's her turn to kiss his face, his cheek, and then nuzzle the same spot with her nose.]

There's so much we need to talk about. All of us.

[seventeenfortythree]

Aye, there is. And I promised Brianna we would meet again in an hour. But there's something I need to tell ye first.

[ He looks at her. ]

I beg ye to listen, wi' all your heart.

[nineteenfortyfive]

[That does nothing to soothe the spike of anxiety in her chest. Claire looks right back at him, frowning.]

What is it?

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Jamie takes one of her hands, holding it tightly. ]

The prison I was in had to close, and so for the rest of my sentence, I was indentured to the Dunsany family at Helwater. The eldest daughter, Geneva Dunsany was to be wed, and did no' wish to--weel, she didna want her first time to lie wi' a man to be wi' someone she didna find attractive. I said no, Sassenach.

[ More than once, he'd said no. But. ]

But she discovered who I was and threatened to tell her her parents. Who would no' be verra kind to a man who fought the British and killed their only son. Threatened to have my parole revoked, I couldna--

[ He stops, hanging his head and wetting his lips. ]

Perhaps I should have accepted being jailed again, but I'm ashamed to say, Sassenach, that I couldna bear the idea of being locked away again. So. I went to her. I left her, afterward, and she married. But it was enough.

[ Now, the harder part. ]

I have a son, Claire. She died in childbirth but he is mine. I canna ever claim him as such. His name is Willie; before arriving here, it'd been nearly a year since I'd seen him. But I taught him to ride. He's braw. Loud and bratty, but braw. And smart.

[ And another child of his Jamie couldn't raise. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[She's not sure what to expect. Maybe he's wed someone. Worse, maybe he's in love with someone else. They've both had lives they've lived without any sliver of a chance of seeing one another again. They had to move on.

Claire holds her breath as Jamie speaks. Yet another person after his body, but this time it resulted in a pregnancy. Her hand twitches in his grasp, but she doesn't pull away, waiting for him to finish speaking.

Just when she thinks today couldn't hold any more surprises.]

And yours.

[Her voice is so quiet she's not even sure she spoke aloud. She pulls her hand from his grasp to run her hands through her hair, messing up the neatly styled bob, and then smearing whatever make up the tears haven't washed away as she scrubs her face.]

[seventeenfortythree]

[ Looks up at her when she pulls her hand away, a gesture that makes his heart twist in his chest. Her and her glass face, he can see it, everything she's thinking. ]

I'm sorry that I wasna stronger. I put my freedom above our vows.

[ She'd thought he was dead. Jamie very much knew that Claire was alive, even if in the future. And so, while the rest of the world assumed him a widow, truly, he was being honorable to the vows he pledged to his wife. ]

If ye're angry wi' me, I understand it, Sassenach. 'Tis why I wanted to tell ye away from Brianna.

[ In case telling her hadn't gone well. ]