assguardians | asgard genesis, test drive meme #6

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!test drive meme

asgard genesis, test drive meme #6

TEST DRIVE MEME

❧ basic info.

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 really be late to a TDM! This will be considered open until the new one is posted.
You can make up your own scenario, interact with one of the locations in the game, use the welcome process of your character waking up or selecting a god house, or use our optional prompts 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. Note, however, that characters aren't allowed to leave the palace unless they've chosen a god! It's for their own safety... and anatomical integrity.
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. Optional events this month can be considered game canon as well! We've specifically structured these prompts to fit in with the IC timeline of Asgard itself.
( ! ) The FAQ is currently undergoing extensive reworking! Please check back closer to application time if you want to to make sure you have the latest info. (The only immediately relevant adjustment is that we've eliminated the 10-minutes-of-screentime rule for characters - those with little canon will now be judged strictly on how well their app represents them as a fully fleshed-out character.)
Casts currently at/approaching the 8 character limit are:
ASOIAF/GOT: 6/8
Devil May Cry: 5/8
Reserves open on February 1st at 12:01AM EST and close on February 7th at 11:59PM EST.
Applications open on February 8th at 12:01AM EST and close on February 14th at 11:59PM EST.
Please always feel free to contact the mods if you have any questions! Have fun, dear (future?) Wanderers. ♥

❧ THE ARRIVAL.

( You're welcome to use a character's arrival as a prompt! Some general information about the arrival process is here. They're then free to explore at least some of Gladsheim Palace, given space enough by the local gods to (in theory) consider which god they'd like to choose to affiliate with. Though most days, Wanderers aren't to step inside Gladsheim Palace without direct permission, the day of arrival is an exception and both new arrivals and Asgard veterans alike can be found wandering the halls, as well as any number of curious-eyed natives who work within the palace walls. Unfortunately, while the natives and the veterans may come and go as they please today, your character isn't permitted to leave the Palace grounds - whether inside or outside on the hedged-in lawn - without choosing a god... or, if all else fails, allowing a god to choose them.

Feel free to ask the mods questions if you encounter any - for example, if you'd like to know how the gods (or a specific god) would've answered X and Y questions from your character! )

❧ MINI-CURSE: SIGYN.

Every god has been able to feel it. A certain energy has been emanating from Skadi; a type of aura that one ethereal being can recognize around another, and this particular atmosphere she'd surrounded herself with wasn't...positive, to say the least. Most gods known how to deal with her in this mood, as it isn't exactly a rarity for Skadi to give off the impression that a storm is brewing around her, quiet or monstrous. Others, however, aren't so old or wisened to her ways to know steering clear might be the better option.

In this instance, Sigyn has taken it upon herself to try and neutralize any impending situation. Albeit good-natured and well-meaning, her methodology is one that might not have the desired effect on the elder Goddess -- in the center of town now exists a large, curved wall of blank concrete, spanning a distance where standing right at the middle mark means you can't see the end in either direction. Every 10 yards are detached, smaller concrete canisters extending from the ground that contain a myriad of art supplies, including paint, pastels and assorted artistic means.

Etched into the side of each concrete canister is a message:

TO ALL WANDERERS:
MAKE ASGARD YOUR OWN
INTRODUCE YOURSELVES
SHOW EVERYONE WHO YOU ARE
It's an open invitation to do whatever you would like to this blank wall in front of you. Maybe more open than you initially think, as reading the simple words create a certain need within you. It's suddenly not just an offer, but a necessity to paint something. Write a message, doodle, express some sort of creativity; this new world('s blank mural) is your oyster, and this sudden compulsion doesn't mean you've become the next Picasso. Once you finish your soul's magnum opus, a pleasant buzz enters your brain and lasts for the rest of the day. Your spirit is lifted, at least until a strong enough catalyst harshes your vibe.

You'll also find that no matter how much of a chalk you might use, these art utensils never seem to whittle away -- perhaps they're worth pocketing, if your neighbour doesn't mind.

❧ ANOMALY DISCOVERED.

It doesn't take you long to find the woods.

No - that statement's a bit misleading. The woods are everywhere, surrounding Asgard in its entirety. Really, it's more notable how quickly you found this patch of woods. You're not even positive quite when it became 'the woods' rather than the friendly, approachable clusters of trees at the far reaches of Honir's district, but here you are. You feel... drawn here, almost. An inexplicable tug, like a sort of gravity that only seems to pull at the base of your spine and the air in your lungs, draws you deeper in through the trees. You're beyond the city limits now, some part of you can feel it, but whatever you're seeking is just ahead.

When you arrive in the place to which you've been drawn, it's... just another patch of woods? At least, that's how it appears. Nothing to see, nothing to hear. You feel it, though - there's something off about this spot, as if the air itself is charged differently. Charged urgently, as if the spot in which you stand thrums with a deep and powerful life force. It's as if you've climbed a mountain, only to discover that mountain is the jagged back of a vast and ancient creature - but instead of a mountain, it's the entirety of the world on which you stand.

Is this what they meant by 'the Mother'?

But though you seem to have been summoned or pulled to this spot, that's where the guidance ends. You're left at a loss for what you're expected to do now that you've arrived. It's only when you try to take a step to leave that you notice that tree roots have grown up from the dirt, taking the time in which you wrapped your mind around the immensity of what you're feeling to subtly but definitively wrap around your foot and ankle to trap you in place.

Fighting against them alone is no use. They seem to thicken under duress, and if that's not enough to resist your blade or your claws, you find that your joints no longer seem to bend quite like they used to. They stiffen to near-immobility, especially your knees and elbows, and though it aches a little it's mostly just to dissuade you from fighting.

Shouting for help (on purpose or just by virtue of yelling at the roots) is a bit more useful. Many other Wanderers find themselves drawn to this exact spot, and two sets of hands fighting against the roots might just be enough to free you.

Then again, you could just give in. (Or maybe you have no choice but to, if your rescuer gets caught too.) The roots will release you in about an hour's time all on their own, and you'll be free to go, feeling somewhat more tired but otherwise entirely unharmed.

❧ NETWORK.

( Network posts are fair game, in this test drive! Network access information can be found here. Note that characters' names are shown - as opposed to choosing usernames - and that the network can't be accessed accidentally. Consider mentioning whether your post is text, audio, or video for clarity! )

navigation.

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He's waiting, and then he isn't.

i. mini-curse:

Cautious steps have brought him to this wall. Shen Wei doesn't need his glasses, but he takes them off anyway, cleaning them on the hem of his crisp shirt before he looks up again.

SHOW EVERYONE WHO YOU ARE

As demands go, it's fairly invasive, but as Shen Wei turns to go, he finds himself hesitating. Does he know who he is without his duty? Without Yunlan? Before he can think of what he's doing, he reaches into the art supplies, pulling out deep blues and purples and greys and a single tube of white. He lifts his brush.

In the end, it isn't a happy picture. The dark, swirling colors scream of grief and loss, but there, at the very top, a bit of light shines through. More satisfied than he'd expected, Shen Wei cleans his hands carefully and steps back from his work.

ii. tree:

He still feels the pleasant warmth in his veins, but Shen Wei knows by now that the blank wall had manipulated him. And without his powers to protect him, he fears he's been ensnared again. He's staring at a large tree, and beneath his feet thrums power unlike any he's ever felt. It feels like life, not his life but all life. He wants to go to his knees and collect a sample of both root and soil, but when Shen Wei looks down, he sees that is not to be. A long, thick branch has already wound its way around his leg, strong enough to hold him, and as another joins it, Shen Wei closes his eyes, breathing carefully.

This life does not have Yunlan. Perhaps he will simply let this tree take him, and wait for the next one.

It was a stupid wall. Ye Zun did not feel like giving it any of his attention. In fact, he felt more like hitting it a few times, or maybe blowing it up, but noticing how many people seem to be drawn to the thing, he knew that it was probably one of the gods' pet projects. Which made it stupider in his humble opinion.

So he would have walked away from it, the compulsion sliding off his back like so much refuse, but then he noticed a familiar back. No, a more than familiar back. One that was attached to an even more familiar face. Ye Zun stopped, stared and then took a tentative step closer.

"Ge..?"

He wouldn't put it past the gods to want to mess with his mind now that they have gotten more use to them. But still. He could hope, couldn't he?

He feels strange. There's an effervescence in his blood he's not experienced before, but in his contemplation of being able to tolerate it, he has to think that this is what the inebriated must feel. He feels light and content, capable - and when he turns automatically at the sound of his brother's voice, Shen Wei smiles.

"Dìdì."

It's as if his brain jerks within his skull, and he nearly flinches, trying to realign himself with his new reality. The brush falls from his hand.

"Dìdì?"

It was him. It was him. Ye Zun stood rooted to the spot, eyes wide and feeling a fluttering, wet feeling lodged into his chest, the air thicker, and his hands trembling. The last one was easier to handle; he curled his fingers, hiding them in the fall of his sleeves.

Did he still forgive him?

A spark of anger at that last thought and he raised his head, but the usual heat to anything he would say was gone. His brother was here and Ye Zun had been behaving. He had made friends, he thinks. There was no reason for Shen Wei to abandon him again, right?

"I'm here... gege."

The entire day, Shen Wei has felt like he is sleepwalking. Even the solemn process of pledging to a god and accepting their power had been like a dream. How could he be born again so soon, and in his already aged body? If he is here, will Yunlan know to find him?

"They said this was not the afterlife," he says, taking a short step forward toward the brother whose face he's seen only a handful of times since they were grown. "I am less convinced than ever."

"It's not. Really."

He's been here enough to know that this place couldn't be death. It was something else to pull him from that inbetween place but it wasn't an afterlife. There were signs that it couldn't be. Even if Odin spent his time not really answering words.

"It's between." The corner of his mouth twitches as he tries to find the words to say what it is, fingers toying with the edge of his sleeves as he looks at his brother and away again. Ye Zun takes a shuffling step forward and stops, looking back at him.

"A center between worlds they say. A possibility of existence and nexus of everywhere. I think. It acts like it."

All these people from all over the worlds and the way pieces seem to fall into the raw plus of energy of the magic around them. It wasn't home, but in a way it reminded Ye Zun of the energy of the Hallows in that one raw instance as they sparked too life and flung him into an eternity of nothing.

"Gege..? Are you mad at me?"

He wants to process all that Ye Zun is saying - a nexus, existing between worlds, not unlike the Hallows' wormhole - but Shen Wei can't look away from his brother's fidgeting hands, not hidden well enough at all by the fall of his sleeves.

Shen Wei reaches forward, taking one between his own. For a brief moment, he looks at the painting he's done. There is a deep sadness there, but not anger. He returns his eyes to Ye Zun.

"If I am angry, it is for all the time we lost, dìdì. Are you well here?"

Oh. Oh. Ye Zun glances down at his hand, at his brother holding his hand and he smiles, the twitch fading a little. Is he well? Such a strange thing to ask when his brother was finally here and he could at least share this place with him now.

"I am."

He tries to wrestling himself back to a more even demeanor, to shy away from the gaping tears that were in his mind, but he didn't need to pretend, not with his twin. He has seen him at his worse (had been in the center of such things too; Ye Zun was crueler because of how much it pained him to get left behind) and there was no need to be anything else but his little brother.

"I haven't died once here, and have been making wine and cooking a lot."

Shen Wei isn't certain what answer he's expecting, but it isn't any of the ones he receives. "You are flourishing," he says with a small, bemused smile. Are these the activities Ye Zun would have enjoyed had he not been taken so early and taught to hate? Shen Wei doesn't know this version of his brother at all, but he wishes to.

"I have never had a talent for either," he admits, and his stomach gives a rumble as if to remind him it's still here and hasn't been fed once today. Shen Wei covers it with his free hand. "Clearly I would love to try your cooking," he says. "But what do you mean, you haven't died once?"

"It is a little hard to destroy a world when one is reduced to human and bound to the magic here," he said with a hiss, a flash of that temper of his appearing. Ye Zun realizes it a moment later, his eyes widening as he bit his lips. "Sorry. I don't mean... I just."

He stops, his fingers tightening as he tries to not babble again. There were so many bad habits he has gained over the centuries that it was hard to unravel them even now when he had no need for them.

Opening his mouth to apologize some more, Ye Zun blinked as his brother as he admits to hunger accompanied by the growl of his stomach. He squeaked and covered his mouth, eyes narrowing in surprised delight before he nodded fast.

"Gege, of course I'll make you something. Oh, we had a case of a giant annoying dragon and then there were ice zombies attacking. I got a couple teeth from the dragon."

Were he not accustomed to holding himself still even when terrified, Shen Wei would flinch for the sudden heat in Ye Zun's eyes. But it's gone nearly as quickly as it came, and on its heels, something nearly like a giggle.

They've never been able to speak like this. For so long, Shen Wei has only been able to know a brother of wrath and vengeance, a man made mad with it. How much of that madness lingers still? His expression smooths as Ye Zun's does, and Shen Wei nods.

"A dragon," he says, for it seems to interest Ye Zun. For now, it seems best to speak on what makes him happy. "Did you fight it yourself?" he asks, nodding for his brother to lead the way.

He has tried to smooth away the madness here, has tried to stop reacting as if all he expected were knives, but there were moments. Most people here wouldn't realize what they were, but his brother would notice and understand it. How could he not, given what had happened between them.

"Yes, with some of the others." He leads Shen Wei towards Odinhaus and then stopped for a moment, looking over at him. "For some reason they brought the tower here. It's smaller and just glows a little but don't be startled by it?"

"Do not be - " Shen Wei starts, staring forward at Odinhaus as if the tower will appear if he looks hard enough. "Why would they do this?" he asks. Surely Ye Zun means the gods, for no Sacred Objects exist here to form one. That pillar is a monument to both their considerable suffering. If Shen Wei had his way, he would see it reduced to rubble.

"Why would they bring your prison?"

"I'm not sure. I said that the only thing I would ever want is you, and the next thing I know that thing showed up."

It's smaller and really nothing more than a rather ridiculous garden decoration than a real prison here, but still. Ye Zun also shares the same wish. He just wasn't sure if he could destroy something gifted to him by the gods. Would they get really mad at him if he did? Would they actually hurt him as well? He wasn't sure and he still hasn't really asked. Yet.

"I spotted someone climbing on it the other day too." Humans.

As shocking as the thought of the tower is, it's comforting to imagine a human climbing on it. An ancient, evil structure, reduced to a mere plaything for the innocent. Shen Wei looks back to his brother.

"You wished for me?"

In all his planning and stratagems for their inescapable end, Shen Wei had never thought that they would speak like this. They met their deaths together and at peace - there was not meant to be more, but he is grateful for it. "You have truly forgiven me, then?" he asks, tentative. "For our separation?"

They wouldn't know what it was, only that it was something odd. After the initial flare of anger, Ye Zun just waved at the human to do whatever. He wasn't inside, it wouldn't hurt him for people to reduce it to nothing but a curiosity.

"Well. Yes?"

Who else? Ye Zun didn't have very many friends. He had minions, some of which had been extremely dedicated. He didn't even know what most of them looked like - a tinge of thought of his most loyal of minion who had given his last breath to crack his prison's shell.

"Mostly," he added, kicking at the ground slightly. They were coming up to Odinhaus and there the prison was, barely ten feet and missing all but a few of the chains on top, surrounded by winter-stripped bushes.

"I still don't like that Yunlan or Kunlun or whatever his name is."

Shen Wei's measured steps slow, one hand coming up quite on its own to touch the necklace at his throat. Even a tight grip cannot stop his fingers' trembling. "Zhao Yunlan," he says, looking at the strange sight of the diminished tower framed absurdly by shrubs.

"You don't have to like him," he says quietly, "But he is my heart." Was, his aching bones remind him. How long will he wait this time? Does he have the strength to endure such loneliness again, knowing how much sweeter life could be? "Please do not speak ill of him."

"Whatever his name is," Ye Zun said after a beat, waving his sleeve at the idea of the guy. He doesn't understand the obsession with the guy, but he also never really had anything close to whatever was going on between them. Shen Wei's heart? What did that mean?

"Fine. I won't speak ill of him."

Unless the guy showed up and started taking away his brother from him. Ye Zun would not accept his brother forgetting about him because of some lover. He led the way into the building and towards the kitchen where Ye Zun has pretty much taken over everything about it.

"I can make some really spicy noodles. Would you like that?"

As concessions go, it isn't much, but it's enough to satisfy Shen Wei for now. He follows his brother into the kitchen, marveling a little at the expanse of it. So many implements - this is the sort of place that makes Ye Zun happy? If so, Shen Wei means to get to know it very well.

"I would love some noodles," he says. "But, perhaps not too spicy? I don't have the stomach for it."

"Doesn't seem like it's killing you." The voice comes from a tree branch not far off, where a slim hooded figure perches semi-precariously as he peers first at Shen Wei, then down at the vines that wind their way up his ankles. It's hardly a startling voice, mostly flat and only just loud enough to bother to cross the distance between them, but there's a note of something guardedly confused in his tone too. Shen Wei might be able to recognize the tone of someone who should know what he's talking about but doesn't quite. Someone who should know the workings of this forest, but who doesn't understand what's happening here - or more importantly, why.

Thinking himself alone, Shen Wei startles all the same. Had he been so entranced on his journey here that he failed to notice the boy in the trees? "No?" he asks, and he doesn't sound disappointed so much as weary. He doesn't want to die in this world or any other, only to find Yunlong.

He attempts to lift his foot, only to feel the vines wind higher. "It doesn't wish to let me go, either," he says, lifting his eyes back to the boy. Were he still the Black Robe Envoy his gaze would be harder, searching for a sign that this youth had something to do with his predicament, but Shen Wei is more human now than he's ever been. He half-smiles. "Any suggestions?"

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asgard genesis, test drive meme #6

Shen Wei | Guardian | Heimdall

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II. and i'm sorry for him.

he's used to the Youths lol