TEST DRIVE MEME #7

[fairyfoes]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping to EACHDRAIDH? Why not give the setting a test run here! OPTIONAL SCENARIOS 01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD. The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you not with mirthful revelry, this time around dear friends. There is a seriousness in the air, though the food is still hearty and the imps still mischievous. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks! 02. THE STATION. Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms! 03. WILDCARD. Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket! Be mindful, though -- the monarchs are watching and cross court communication should be done with the utmost secrecy.

Comments

1

[thequitecontrary]

Mary would be lying if she said she didn't miss cars and trains, but in general horseback doesn't bother her. She likes hoses and she likes riding. She even likes racing occasionally, though hasn't found cause to do it here yet - other than her midnight escape from Caer Glaem, but she'd rather not be reminded of that.

On this day she's riding leisurely, astride, because Granny isn't here to scold her and it's much more comfortable than riding sidesaddle. She nods to the man passing her on the path in the opposite direction.

"Good day."

[commemini]

He's growing used to the idea of women riding astride. There are women who are knights here, and a knight riding sidesaddle would be impractical, to say the least. It's still a bit jarring to see, but he knows that will pass eventually. And besides, this woman has a good seat.

"Good day. Ah," he reigns his mount in. "If you're heading much farther that way, you may want to be careful. There have been a few kelpie sightings recently."

[thequitecontrary]

Mary also stops her horse and turns to face him. She's silent for a moment, then gives a little laugh.

"Forgive me," she says. "I thank you for the warning, sir. But does it not strike you as quite ridiculous the things we are forced to deal with here?"

Kelpies. Magic. Fairies. Despite being here for over a year, it's all still madness to her.

[commemini]

Cromwell turns his mount fully, laughing himself.

"It seems my years of dismissing such things have come 'round to mock me."

[thequitecontrary]

"Indeed." Mary brings her white mare up next to his horse. "Perhaps this is the price I've come to pay for not believing in magical beings."

She gives him an ironic smile. It's always nice to meet other Brits while here.

"Lady Mary Crawley."

[commemini]

He removes his hat, bowing slightly in the saddle before replacing it. "Thomas Cromwell, my lady."

Crawley is not a name he recognizes, but unfortunately he has accepted that as more likely than not, for the time. He wonders where the Crawleys might be from.

[thequitecontrary]

Cromwell is a name that she immediately recognizes though. Her eyes grow a bit wider.

"Lord Cromwell?" She just wants to make sure that she's correct, that she is speaking to the person that she believes she is.

[commemini]

"Lord?" His eyebrows rise abruptly, but fall back as he laughs. "Oh no, my lady. Just Cromwell."

If there were land or a title, Walter or some earlier relative would have dug it up. They would have abused it until the land was scarred. And so in spite of Henry's attempts to connect him to the minor nobility that share his name, he, Cromwell, remains as stubbornly common as Putney mud.

[thequitecontrary]

And now Mary is questioning her mun's knowledge of English history. Was Cromwell not a Lord? Or perhaps this is a different Cromwell?

"Mr. Cromwell, secretary to His Majesty King Henry VIII? Or another man of the same name?"

It's hard for her to believe that a man so famous in her country's history has no connection to nobility.

[commemini]

"I'm to become secretary?" The question is cheerful. He imagines Gardiner's face, that look as if he's fighting back bile. Cromwell hopes there is no secretary between them.

Is he to become a lord as well? The thought is strange to him. He is the blacksmith's son, as Wolsey was the butcher's. It would suit Gregory, though, the security and leisure that can come with a title. He, Cromwell, cannot help but expect he would keep scrabbling for something more.

[thequitecontrary]

"Oh, um, yes..." Perhaps Mary should stop talking. "I beg your pardon but I am from many years in your future. Your name is known because you helped the King greatly."

By engineering his divorce and inevitably changing the religion of the entire country. Has that happened in his life yet? Mary's afraid to say much more.

[commemini]

"Ah! That does seem to be rather common here. I've become old-fashioned." He smiles briefly, but his gaze is sharp.

"Might I ask how the king does?"

[thequitecontrary]

Mary is silent for a moment, debating how to answer that. "He marries a total of six times." She feels that rather sums up Henry VIII. Fortunately the monarchy in her time is rather less ostentatious, probably due to the existence of Parliament.

It then dawns on Mary that she's sitting on a horse having a conversation with Thomas Cromwell, who had previously warned her about kelpie attacks in the area. This place is truly weird.

"How is it that you came to be in the Drabwurld?"

[commemini]

"Six?" Christ, and they still haven't managed to get him into his second marriage (preferably, of course, without a war starting). The hope for Anne was that she would stabilize affairs. There are four queens after her? (He does not doubt that Anne will be the second queen- that road is too well-paved for it to be otherwise.)

But England continues to exist. That is stability, if only in the broadest terms. Is that enough?

He should not become lost in his thoughts.

"I believe I came here the same way most members of the courts do. Abduction, more or less. And yourself?"

[thequitecontrary]

"Yes, sir. He is quite a dynamic personality, though I imagine you would know that better than I."

England thrives, despite the wars that batter her throughout the centuries. They keep calm and carry on.

She smiles because he's got quite an amusing personality. Who knew? "Similarly yes, though more consent on my part. I must have been quite out of my mind at the time however."

[commemini]

"Dynamic is appropriate." Perhaps one of the better words. Henry is all energy, though he seldom focuses it consistently. He is changing, and can be changed.

Evidently more times than Cromwell had expected.

How does Henry manage such a thing with the lords and the church? Who are the other women? Does Mary follow Anne?

Or should he, for the moment, redirect his attention to the world he is in?

"What could they have said to persuade you?" His interest is not feigned.

[thequitecontrary]

"Ah, well.." Her cheeks redden a bit. "You see, I had quite a bit of champagne that night, and I thought it would be a lark..."

It was the night of Rose's coming out ball and there was a lot of dancing and both Tony and Charles were after her and she was high on the idea of being pursued by two men competing for her.

"To be honest, I thought I was dreaming. Or hallucinating."

[commemini]

"One can hardly blame you for that thought. I had it as well." He had thought, perhaps, he had suddenly come down with fever. But fever dreams, in his experience, are much more changeable. And, in fact, his dreams are most often connected to reality. This is not a reality that would have occurred to him.

[thequitecontrary]

It's not a reality that would ever have occurred to her either. She finally had to accept it for what it was, because going around doubting everything and not believing in magic would have been exhausting. Plus she's seen it with her own eyes.

"What year is it where you're from?"

[commemini]

"1531." Anno Domini. But that may go unspoken.

"And you, my lady?"

[thequitecontrary]

"1924, sir."

Nearly 400 years. It hadn't occurred to her that it was quite that long, but so it is.

[commemini]

He sits back in his saddle. The rise of the Plantagenets, crusades, the creation of parliament, unification with Wales and loss in Scotland, the wars with France and the concession of territory there, the Black death, the war between Lancaster and York. That is four hundred years.

"And England survives."

[thequitecontrary]

Mary smiles at him. "England thrives." She is a proud patriot and Tory, like any good daughter of an Earl should be.

[commemini]

He must answer with another smile. Even in the event it is not his England, which he knows to be possible here, it is gratifying to hear.

"I believe I am obligated to ask- do we hold any lands in France?"

Not that wars to reclaim territory there have gone well for quite a while. Poor planning and the loss of advantages in weapons, as well as their own civil wars, have taken their toll.

[thequitecontrary]

Mary laughs gently. "No, not currently. We are allies with France, though I'm not sure if we could be considered friends."

Germany tends to be the major problem these days.