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Post by MEREDITH FELL on Dec 17, 2022 21:05:17 GMT
CRASH LANDING WITH JOHANNA BAI
The Fell family had a complicated history with Whitmore College. She was one of the few family members that totally understood just what that was --- and she was never quite sure how she felt about it. On one hand, learning that vampire blood could heal injury and some sickness was helpful --- but the way that all came about? Well, she wasn't about to embrace that fully. It went against one of her prime directives: do no harm.
As she left the administrative building behind, Meredith couldn't help but smile just a little at the sight of all the students milling about. She had genuinely enjoyed her college years, a chance to be away from the small town pressures that existed in Mystic Falls. She almost wished she could be that carefree once more but that time in her life had passed. Besides, she had responsibilities.
One of which she had just completed.
Meredith had personally oversaw arranging the Fell donation to Whitmore College the past few years. Call it a penance for any involvement in the underbelly of the institution, call it personal curiosity to see the state of the place now --- either way, she had just walked out of a meeting with the dean and was ready to make the drive back to Mystic Falls. Only it seemed that she was needed elsewhere.
She heard the impact first, her head whipping around to the source of the noise. It was automatic to run towards the chaos, knowing instinctively that someone would be in need of help. Meredith was quick about it, reaching the car that had jumped the curb taking out two students along the way. Her eyes assessed the situation: two young people down and an elderly man slumped over the wheel. She knew she needed to attend to the mostly gravely injured first but there was no way she could tackle this alone. She knew that there were some curious onlookers but she needed more than that.
"Someone call for an ambulance," she instructed, letting her bag fall off of her shoulder onto the ground. "And if anyone has any medical knowledge at all, I need a hand here!"
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 54
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Apr 7, 2024 18:33:27 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Dec 21, 2022 21:32:14 GMT
Jo stood by the door as her students started to file out, her hand out for the pop tests she’d passed out unexpectedly the moment they’d walked in this afternoon. An unannounced test just a week before Christmas? Mean, a little perhaps, but considering most other courses had set heavy assignments due in January, this seemed like an easy trade. ”Class is still happening on Thursday,” she warned as they trailed out. Another easy trade then though. A screening of Indiana Jones and Last Crusade was about as generous as it came – its use of maps and the geography of the ancient world (oh, most of it was still there, visible in crumbling chunks beneath the modern world) was tenuous at best. She knew that her students were already checking out mentally for Christmas though, and in a way, so was she.
The pit stop by her office to grab her bag and the stack of assignments her postgrad class had handed in for ‘Religious Transformation in Early China’ was an in and out. She didn’t even do more than raise a hand to wave a return to Professor Damasca’s call of have a good Christmas as she hurried past his office. Over seven hundred years of celebrating yule and Christmases across the world and you’d have thought she’d gotten better about the planning. The cards, on their ever revolving rota of names (so many filed away in the back of her mind already lost to old age and the sort of sickness she could never suffer) had gone out last week at least.
Magnus, Lincoln, a little something more than the bottle of Barolo & Barbaresco she’d already bought for Roxxi. Perhaps even a little treat for herself – the small brass lanterns she’d been eyeing up in the antique shop (she wasn’t calling it a pawn shop) across the square from Magnus’ shop. A stop by there with coffee perhaps, although caffeine in a health food shop was probably some sort of a crime.
Plans and lists flitted through her head as she followed the last of her students out. It would probably take over an hour to get back there and make her quick round of the stores … Distraction had left her mind drifting as she pulled out of the lot, but after the incident in the woods, where the rain and the creature in the road had resulted in her wrecking her car against a tree, she had forced herself to look. The cars up ahead were already speeding towards the gate – the campus had its fun, but never enough for some of the students – one swerving for a reason she couldn’t see. It mounted the sidewalk in a shocking moment, ploughing into a knot of students walking back from classes. Jesus.
The cars in front of her were already screeching to a halt, the ones behind her who hadn’t seen what had happened hammering on their horns. Jo ignored the bark of them in the air, jumping out of her car to run towards the scene. She hadn’t had real medical training, but you didn’t travel like her parents had done without learning something. Two students were down on the pavement, an … not a teenager behind the wheel, but an old man slumped over the wheel instead. A heart attack? A stroke? Just a moment of distraction that had knocked him out with the impact? She didn’t know.
A brunette was already there on the sidewalk, her bag thudding down beside her. Jo didn’t wait to see if any of the gawking students were calling, she pulled her phone from her pocket, dialled 911 herself. ”I’ve got it,” she assured the woman. Panic was a tremor in the pit of her stomach, but nothing half as bad as what she had faced in the past. She gave the dispatcher their location, told her what had happened in the simplest of words, told them to hurry. She set her phone down on the sidewalk as she knelt on the other side of the two injured teenagers. ”I don’t know how far a few first aid courses will count, but … you’ve got both my hands. Where can I help?” She could already see the pool of blood spreading out beneath the boy’s head, felt her stomach tightening. Her fingers shook as she reached down to touch them to his throat, there was still a pulse there, but it was faint enough to have that fear burning up into her throat.
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Post by MEREDITH FELL on Jan 1, 2023 21:35:13 GMT
CRASH LANDING WITH JOHANNA BAI
Meredith knew that many around her were falling into the time honored tradition of just gawking. She couldn't blame them. She understood that was part of the natural reaction to something like this --- people froze, they stared, they couldn't help but want to record some of it to show others later. Disbelief and shock did a hell of a lot to a person's brain and she told herself not to hold against them even as she bristled by lack of initial response to her call for help. She supposed it would have been too easy if one of Whitmore's pre-med students or their professors would have been walking by.
She would take what she could get at this point.
So when the brunette sprung to action, offering her first aid courses she gave an enthusiastic sigh of relief. "You're hired!" Now that she was no longer in it alone, Meredith took the time to properly assess the situation. Two down, one bleeding from an apparent head wound and an elderly man still unconscious behind the wheel. She knew damn well that she had to check the pulse of the driver. If it was a medical emergency that had caused him to jump the curb, she could be looking at someone who needed CPR or more.
"Check their vitals: pulse, are they breathing, etc. Don't move the guy. The paramedics will need a back brace for him." They couldn't risk it even if she would rather take him away from the sidewalk to a more safe location. "Can you see where the blood is coming from without moving his head? If so, check. Sometimes head wounds look more serious than they actually are." Fingers crossed on that.
She moved towards the car, noting how some students will standing around staring. Furrowing her brows she leveled a glare at some of them in the road. "If you are going to stand there, be useful. Make sure no traffic comes down this road. The last thing we need is more cars involved." Thankfully she sounded like she knew what she was talking about and therefore they jumped into action, effectively forming a barricade around the scene. She was able to check the pulse of the man behind the wheel. He had one --- but it wasn't great. She felt his skin, noting how clammy it was. Heart attack maybe? "Take it easy, sir. Help is on the way."
Meredith popped her head out of the car and looked over to her help. "How are they?"
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 54
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Apr 7, 2024 18:33:27 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Jan 15, 2023 20:29:11 GMT
Some things didn’t change. Even in the middle ages people had a tendency to gawp at the unexpected. They would gather in knots in Cambaluc, or in the village, mouths open until the whispering and gossip started. Usually it was the men – like Magnus and Kaegan – wading into the middle of it all, clearing the trouble with the authority in their voices and the respect they’d earned. The whip thin girl who had a tendency to overstep the lines marked out for her would earn herself askant looks for doing the same, but it hadn’t stopped her. In the caravans Jo would’ve gone with her parents, the next generation of the Bais, destined to take the reins one day … if fate hadn’t intervened.
It was probably no more her place here to try and give medical help she wasn’t entirely trained for, but she wouldn’t be one of those standing around on the side lines – some with phones in their hand to snap photos that weren’t half as sneaky as they believed them to be. There was little to call a blessing in what Philippa had done to her, other than finding Magnus again after such a time, but what the blood in her veins could do was one of them. That, Jo knew, would make her more of a help than she ever could have been as a human, if she could give it to the gravely injured without being seen.
A wry smile touched Jo’s lips as she nodded to the woman who took charge. Under less pressing circumstances she would have tried to lighten matters, asking if there was a pay check but this was not the time for such things. ”Yes ma’am,” she called instead, making it aware that she was hearing the list of orders. In her parents time there was no equipment of the sort the paramedics would bring. You made do with what you had and for the gravely injured it was damn little. There had been a guard of her father’s who had been crushed beneath his horse during a storm. Something inside of him had broken and all they had been able to do was allow him sips of water as he had slowly succumbed to his injuries. Now they would have whipped him away to a hospital, surgery piecing him back together perhaps.
Jo kept her fingers pressed to the boy’s throat, glad that her own heart couldn’t race anymore to confuse matters. Her hearing picked up the thud-thud-thud of his pulse, the one that was slowing. Shit. She dipped down, almost like she was checking his breathing, but she could hear that too, slow and laboured. No whistle or crackle to show that the impact had punctured a lung in any way. Her fingers slipped carefully beneath the curve of his neck. She almost recoiled as she felt the softer area of the wound, the hard shell of bone through it. It was bad, the impact of the car probably throwing him back to hit his head on the sidewalk. ”It’s at the base of his skull,” she called out as the woman moved away to the car to check the driver. ”An open wound, about three inches across.” It explained the blood loss, and the slowing vitals. If blood was filling his skull the pressure would be stopping all those automatic functions, maybe killing him before the ambulance even arrived.
Now her pulse was picking up, from little more than an occasional squeeze in her chest to something that fluttered. The sensation of it was probably more mental than physical, but it had Jo already glancing around herself, wondering how close people were. The woman’s orders had sent most of them moving, backs turned away, scanning the road for traffic. Not watching her, thank God. Jo’s wide grey eyes lifted to meet the dark ones of the woman. ”Not great,” she said honestly. ”I can’t tell how bad it is. It’s still bleeding and he’s not coming around. Pulse and breathing are slow, I think. How’s the driver?” She glanced away, back to the other victim who was laying there groaning, pale, semi-conscious at least. They would likely hold out long enough, but the boy…
With the dark screen of her hair covering her face, Jo lifted her wrist to her mouth. She bit into the tender skin there, leaving the blood that was barely hers welling dark in the bite marks. Leaning close to the boy, she pressed her wrist to his lips, holding her breath until she felt them start to move against her skin. A chance, he would have a chance now. If he didn’t make it … perhaps she should have considered that first. If he were to die with her blood in his system she would have turned a teenage boy who would now be her responsibility. His groan had her calling out to the woman at the car, her wrist whipped back, her blood smeared on the boy’s shirt as the wounds beneath closed up. ”He’s waking … perhaps it wasn’t as bad as I thought,” she offered up a silent prayer, glancing over her shoulder to aim a smile at Meredith. ”Should I stay with him or go to the other?” A doctor dealing with two patients was very different to a one trick pony with only one method of healing doing it, risking a turning every single time she pulled that trick.
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Post by MEREDITH FELL on May 6, 2023 19:03:31 GMT
CRASH LANDING WITH JOHANNA BAI
Meredith had spent a great deal of her medical career multi-tasking. It was usually in the confines a hospital with all the equipment and medicine she needed to cope. Being here, surrounded by nosy onlookers and lacking the necessary supplies, left her feeling more frazzled than she wanted to be. She thought back to her mass casualty training, knowing that she had to prioritize the victims. Those who couldn't be saved should not receive much of her time, as cold as that sounded. She hated the thought of losing anyone but she had to be realistic. The heart attack victim was breathing and he had a pulse. There was nothing more she could do for him on the scene. "The ambulance will be here soon," she told his unconscious form. She hoped that where ever he was currently that he was not in a lot of pain. She hoped that he could hold on.
She turned her head towards the update from the other woman, her face falling as she heard the news. A head wound at the base of the skull? That was dangerous. "Whatever you do, don't move him. I will be right there," she instructed. She was giving one last survey of the scene before moving to him. He would be the patient most in need of support. She could assess the damage and try to staunch the bleeding. The rest of the people, while wounded, looked like they would make a recovery with medical help. Lucky for them Whitmore was filled to the brim with technology and specialists ready to receive them. They were a teaching hospital after all --- they had to have all the bells and whistles.
She was about to go to the unconscious owner of the headwound when she heard the woman's voice again. Coming around? Not as bad as she thought? Meredith frowned, her eyebrows knitting together. It was completely possible that the other woman could have misread the situation but as she got closer she saw the amount of blood on the ground already. Something wasn't adding up.
Meredith pushed back at any suspicions for now in favor of seeing to her patient. "Can you keep an eye on the driver? Suspected heart attack. Can you keep track of his pulse and breathing? If anything changes let me know. For now, he's waiting on the ambulance. I will take over from here with him." She glanced down at the patient in question before getting to her knees. Her hands automatically slipped under his head feeling around for the wound that caused all this blood. When she couldn't find it, it only served to confuse her thoughts even more. She couldn't help but casting a glance at her helper. But then she told herself to focus, that lives were in the balance.
The life of the boy on the ground however? Definitely not teetering close to destruction. In fact, she watched as he began to try and sit up, arguing that he felt fine. She shook her head, keeping steady pressure on his shoulders. "You are going to wait until the ambulance comes." Thankfully that wasn't long. She was able to explain what had happened and ensure that the driver and the head injury were looked at first. Like her, she could see the puzzlement on their faces but the kid was talked into going to the hospital anyway.
She had to clean herself up. There was blood on her hands and a crowd still watching. She only had eyes for her partner however. She moved towards her. "So...let's go find a bathroom. Get cleaned up. Talk."
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 54
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Apr 7, 2024 18:33:27 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on May 14, 2023 18:58:29 GMT
Her mother had been the healer for their caravan. Without the modern day marvels of medicine there had been little she could do for the worst afflictions, but at each stop they made, she would peruse the herbs, selecting what she could to aid fevers and headaches and she could clean and bandage wounds with the best of them. Some of her lessons had stuck with her and when her own children had coughed and sweltered with the childhood illnesses that would spread through the castle life wildfire, she had pounded herbs, pouring sips of infusions made with yarrow and willow bark past their lips. Prayer had seemed like it would do little, but Jo had still found herself falling back on it. Mentally calling to the Virgin Mary herself, to her own mother, for a blessing that would bring her children through.
The same words whispered through her head now, despite how much more she could do with just the blood that pulsed sluggishly in her veins now – blood that, for the most part, was not her own. Jo’s heart ached for the boy, for the mother who might end up grieving him if the injury was too great, even for what she might be able to do. Hoping for some sort of reassurance, she called out his injuries to the woman who had taken charge, her eyes lighting to her as she fired instructions back. ”I won’t. Please, hurry,” she called back. If there wasn’t anything she could do, maybe there was something the woman could.
For long moments she vacillated over it. Do nothing, wait for the woman to come back to them and an ambulance to arrive, perhaps feel her heart fall when the boy succumbed to his injures. Give him her blood and risk him dying anyway, only to wake up in a short time in transition. She’d had no plans to sire anybody, especially not the way Magnus had ended up having to turn Lincoln to save him. The truth had tripped off her tongue first – the boy was not doing well, if there was a tipping point she should not act past, it was fast coming up. Imagining it were her own son, she leapt.
Voices murmured behind her as she bit her wrist and allowed the blood to trickle past the boy’s lips. They moved, slowly at first, then parting on a groan. Thank God. Another truth slipped out, coated with a lie that would protect them all. Jo shifted back slightly as Meredith approached. ”Maybe I didn’t know as much as I thought I did,” she murmured as she got to her feet. Another lie. He would have died without help, the blood soaked into the ground beneath his head was proof enough of that. ”I’ll let you know.” Her fingers squeezed the woman’s shoulder as she got to her feet and rushed to the car. ”Help’s on the way.” There was no reaction to her whisper, but there was still a heartbeat as she pressed her fingers to the man’s throat. She couldn’t pull the same trick twice, it would be too obvious, even if it might mean two lives saved instead of just the one.
Jo continued to dart her gaze back to the boy and the doctor. She kept him there, easing him down on the ground until the paramedics appeared to take over. He was dealt with first, despite the apparent lack of serious injury now. ”He still has a pulse, but he hasn’t come around,” she told the paramedic as one approached to take over the driver’s care. Brushing her hands down the front of her ruined shirt, Jo stepped back. She could get back in her car, make it home in about half an hour. Shower the blood off, wait for that faint tremor in her hands to still and then maybe she’d go to Magnus, tell him what had happened. Or she could …
The doctor was there in front of her before she could move, blood on her hands. Her focus still fixed, and not on the patients anymore. Jo swallowed hard, unsure she liked it all being turned in her direction, especially with the weight the woman put on the word talk. ”The humanities block has probably cleared out already … they’re all out here watching. There’s a staff bathroom … it’s private.” Perhaps too private, if there were any threat here. Jo tilted her head back towards the building, her nerves buzzing with a sick anticipation as she led the way back there. She held open the door to the bathroom once they were inside, following the woman in rather than the other way around. ”What do you think his chances are? The driver …” She knew the boy’s chances now. He’d survived, perhaps because of her, perhaps he would’ve done anyway, but she wasn’t about to regret helping change those odds.
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Post by MEREDITH FELL on Jul 4, 2023 22:48:31 GMT
CRASH LANDING WITH JOHANNA BAI
Normally she would have stayed, probably even gone to the hospital to ensure that everything was okay but she had other pressing issues. She had a feeling (based on her own experience) and she needed to know. If what she thought happened, actually happened she would end up at that hospital after all. If only to ensure that the young man wasn't released until the vampire blood was out of his system. She had meant what she told Kol Mikaelson. She didn't make vampires. She saved people. She only gave blood in very controlled conditions. She was already nearly panicking at the thought of it happening in the wild sort to speak.
(even though it wasn't her, it was the woman at her side)
Meredith nodded her head. "Sounds perfect," she answered, hearing a similar read between the lines tone in Johanna's voice. She took a deep breath, wondering if going to a small enclosed space was the best idea. But then again, if her suspicions were correct she had just saved the life of someone without blinking. She wouldn't turn around and hurt Meredith would she?
She was careful when she pulled at the heavy door to the building, not wanting to stain it with blood. She noticed the way people were looking at them as they moved and she supposed they made quite a pair, walking through the light crowd. Sure enough, the bathroom that the other woman mentioned was just as empty as advertised. Meredith's nose wrinkled immediately. She could see why. The place was in dire need of a makeover. Or at least a deep clean.
She moved to the sink, turning on the facet and letting the water run warm. As she waited she looked up at the woman, studying her in the mirror. "I'm Meredith by the way. Meredith Fell." With the basic introductions out of the way, she plunged her bloody hands into the water, scrubbing at the blood. Then she was reaching for the soap to work up a lather. She couldn't help but let her gaze wander every now and then to look at the woman. She was trying not to stare but there was just no way around it.
"You did good out there," Meredith began, dancing around the real crux of the conversation for now. "A lot of people would have run screaming or just backed off. But you jumped right in with no hesitation. I appreciate that. I couldn't have done it alone." One of them would have died, she knew that. It would have been the boy. His blood on the sidewalk was proof of that.
She was satisfied that the worst of the blood was off her hands so she turned to look at her companion properly. "I think the heart attack victim will be okay. The stress of the whole situation overwhelmed him but he had a good pulse for someone who just suffered what he did." She chewed on the lip before diving in. "The boy will be good too. He shouldn't be. He probably should died but...you gave him a little boost, huh?"
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 54
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Apr 7, 2024 18:33:27 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Jul 28, 2023 18:23:19 GMT
It didn’t sound perfect to her. None of this had been close to that. If her heart still beat the same way it had when she’d raced away from Cambulac on North Wind’s back, Ananda close behind, then it would’ve raced as it had then. Her nerves still twitched, her lungs feeling as though they couldn’t get in quite enough air as she led the doctor towards the building she’d left just a short time ago. She’d had no intention to get caught up in the situation, but there was no way she wouldn’t have been able to stand by and watch that boy die anymore than Magnus had Linc. This boy had survived though, the blood in his system saving his life instead of turning him. They’d call it a miracle and she’d feel that itch between her shoulder blades until all of the furore over it had settled down.
Jo kept her eyes off of the students who were still scattered around, moving with the sort of assurance that had stood in her good stead over the years. Look like you knew what you were doing and people didn’t stop to question you. She led the doctor past her office, to the bathroom down at the end of the hall. The other offices she’d passed – including Roxxi’s and Frank’s, thank God, were already empty. The door clunked lightly shut behind her, the shade cast by the single small window high up on the wall, its spotted glass letting in little light. Usually she hated it, but now it hid the uncertainty on her face, and the dappled blood spots on both her hands and the doctor’s.
Turning on the water, Jo approached the sink beside the one the woman occupied. Her eyes met the dark ones in the mirror, the corners of her lips twitching into something approaching a smile as she squeezed the astringent smelling soap into her own hands from the dispenser. ”It’s a pleasure, Meredith,” Jo said with a bob of her head. ”Johanna Bai … Jo. I’m a professor here, my office is just …” She gestured back the way they’d come with one soapy hand.
Her head dipped as she focused on washing the blood from her hands. The scent of it was rapidly covered by the smell of the soap, although the remembered copperiness of it would come back to her as she soaked her clothes later to try and salvage them from the dark splotches that she was steadfastly avoiding looking at. ”I tried … it’s been a long time since I’ve had to fall back on my training.” As though she’d earned some sort of certificate in first aid when she’d qualified as a teacher instead of learning at her mother’s knee at a time when it was more likely to be a fall from a horse or a slash from a sword than a car accident.
The smile that tugged at Johanna’s lips was wan. She glanced up, dipping her hands under the stream of water from the tap – cool, thank God, because if it had been roasting hot she’d have still kept her hands there, preferring the oddness of tolerating the heat to having the blood on her skin any longer. ”I couldn’t stand by and watch kids suffering like that. If it had been one of my sons…” She’d have been falling to pieces instead of holding onto that iron core she’d spent centuries trying to foster inside of herself. ”I’ve spent a lot of time travelling, seen a lot of things. I like to think I’m steady under most circumstances.” Over seven hundred years of experience would do that for you.
Before the boy with the head injury might have had a chance. It would have been a matter of watching and waiting, perhaps the brutality of a trepanation if they’d had a real healer on hand, but for a heart attack there would have been little to do. There was no electricity to jump start a heart, no CPR. Sitting by the bedside and waiting was all they could do.
Something unknotted in Jo’s stomach with Meredith’s assurance that the driver would be alright. She let out a long breath, reaching out to tug paper towels from the dispenser on the wall. They were cheap and scratchy, but she rubbed her hands with them over and over. ”I’m glad,” she said softly. ”Knowing that he ran over those kids is going to be awful for him …” The boy she’d helped would at least remember nothing of what she’d had to do. ”I said I might have been mistaken about how badly he was hurt,” Jo blurted as Meredith’s words seemed to shift. She looked up, then away quickly, shaking her head. ”I’m not sure what you mean. I just saw the blood and perhaps I panicked a little.” Her eyes were on the spot on her wrist she’d bitten though. When she looked up there was almost something defensive in her eyes as she looked at the woman, overlaying that deep cushion of fear beneath.
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Post by MEREDITH FELL on Nov 12, 2023 19:21:18 GMT
CRASH LANDING WITH JOHANNA BAI
Johanna Bai, Jo --- Meredith committed that name to her memory. Not that she would ever have reason to forget it. Not after what had happened on the college grounds. She figured that she would be thinking of this moment often. She had been free with vampire blood herself but that was a choice of hers, and the blood she used was not always given freely. Instead she had to do what she had to do to ensure that she had a supply. She had never met someone else who did the same.
She had to wonder --- was it given straight from the source?
It occurred to her now that she was accusing a potential vampire in a room where there was just the two of them. The vervain readily flowing in her system would keep Jo from making her a snack but necks snapped easily. The adrenaline from the accident was starting to wear off, replaced by a sense of self preservation. She needed to step carefully.
"Hopefully he will get the help he needs to deal with the guilt of the incident too. I know that people will blame him but hopefully they realize it was an accident. I don't even need to hear the full story to know that that was what it was. I could see it in his eyes. He was worried about the others, even in his state. Thankfully he will get a chance to make it right." His guilt would no doubt lead to him finding ways to atone for his part in the accident. She had seen this before in her work in the emergency department. Sometimes the psychological scars outnumbered the physical ones and she had a feeling this was one such case.
"And thankfully the boy will get well enough to decide whether or not forgiveness is something that he has in him. I bet he does. It might take time but I bet in the end, he will forgive the driver." The water running in the sink had gone back clear now and Meredith pulled her hands back, reaching for paper towel to dry them. The move allowed her to put some space between she and Jo, although she knew that was only a quick fix. If Jo wanted to close that space, she could do it in a blink.
Meredith decided to push forward just a little, continuing to walk that fine line.
"Look, I saw him before you got there. I might not have seen the full extent of the injury but I knew. I also know there are ways to help people that exist outside of the current realm of medicine. I know because I do it too," she confessed, hoping to show a level of comradery that would get the true story out there.
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 54
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Apr 7, 2024 18:33:27 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Dec 10, 2023 15:48:33 GMT
Had they been outside of the college she might not have been so free with telling the doctor just who she was. Revealing your name in places like Mystic Falls – the ones filled with dangers – just gave anybody who wanted to do you harm another hook to catch you with. It had been the same when she had been travelling with Ananda. People moved the length of the silk road to trade in information just as much as they did spices or gems. Someone like her step-mother would have paid handsomely to have a lead on where she had gone with her father’s trading seal. Thankfully they had been able to escape before her theft (not that she would have called taken her inheritance that) had caught up to her. In the modern day in Mystic Falls disappearing wasn’t so easy, especially not when Magnus and Linc were here.
Once upon a time her mother had been a healer and Jo told herself that there was something innately trustworthy in someone who spent their life attempting to save others. It was a vocation that required selflessness and a lack of judgment and she felt both radiating from the woman beside her. She glanced aside now, storm grey eyes settling on the woman. ”I hope he will too,” she said softly. ”There are people at the hospital he can talk to, aren’t there? If he was unwell, he wouldn’t have been able to stop what happened.” That didn’t necessarily stop the guilt from eating you alive though. She hadn’t been able to stop what she had done when she’d left her husband. Vampirism wasn’t exactly a sickness, but to protect them from what she’d become she’d had to leave and it had broken something in her that she wasn’t sure had yet healed.
The man wouldn’t have the boy’s death on his conscience at least. It was one small measure of guilt lifted from him, more if the boy did decide to offer up forgiveness over what had happened. Jo offered Meredith a small smile, a polite nod as she leaned back against the wall next to the paper towel dispenser. ”I hope you’re right. I guess you see enough of this in your job to know how things are going to turn out.” She’d had over 700 years of experience under her belt and decades as a parent, but if there was one thing she’d learned in all that time it was that some things were unpredictable.
She watched as the doctor inched away from her, feeling those tremors in the pit of her stomach again. Was it wariness or was she just imagining things as nervousness continued to bite at her. Meredith was plunging ahead with her observations about the boy she’d saved, every word knotting her gut tighter. Jo straightened up, taking a small step back towards the door. Her gaze rose from her wrist, now fully healed, to the woman in front of her. ”It was crazy, he wasn’t the only one hurt … you said you didn’t see the full extent of it …” She babbling, Jo could hear the fear rising in her own voice. It had been a mistake to stay there after she’d healed the boy, she should’ve melted away into the crowd.
Fear rolled through her, fast and vicious as North Wind’s hoofbeats. If her pulse was capable of racing now, it would’ve been fluttering in her throat, but Philippa had put a stop to that all those centuries before. She knew. Jo puffed out a breath as Meredith said she did it too. Her gaze locked on the woman’s throat, confusion filtering over her face. She could see the pulse beating there, could’ve heard every beat of it if she’d focused. ”How? You’re not … I think you’re mistaken over what you thought you saw. Maybe there are different ways to help people, but you seem to be suggesting I did something to that boy. I helped him, that was all. He’s alive, he’s going home to his family. That’s the important part.” But that would make no difference to a hunter. She was a thing, something to be eradicated in the way someone had Philippa, it didn’t matter if she hadn’t killed anybody she’d fed on since that first maid, or that she did everything possible to help others now. Being a vampire was enough.
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