JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
|
Post by JOHANNA BAI on Apr 15, 2021 18:29:23 GMT
A horse, a horse, my Kingdom for a horse
Staring out of the windscreen of her car as she crept back from Whitmore to her apartment, Johanna lamented the loss of such things. They hadn’t only been kept and ridden out of necessity in the past. They had been relegated to things of pleasure as technology had raced exponentially away from the wheel but there had been pleasure there too when she had first stolen into her uncles stables. That first ride on North Wind…
Jo’s lips curled into a small smile as she let out a long breath. The wind tugging at her hair, North Wind’s pearly hair clutched in small hands as Tolui had stood at the rail, watching her with a great joy missing from the shocked faces of her parents and the rest of the family. A child too small for such a thing, a child enamoured.
She craned forward a few more inches, the bare backs of her thighs pressing against the rough fabric of the seat as she tried to get a look up at the sky as she crept forward. No rain yet, although the bruised blue-black of the skies threatened it at any moment. A gloom that felt unnatural at this hour had already been building outside of the windows of the classroom she’d spent the afternoon teaching in before she’d called an end to it twenty minutes early. Head home before this comes down, stay safe out there … and don’t forget to pick up the worksheet for Monday’s homework on your way out. She’d barely lingered ten minutes after that to gather her things up from her office. Even that, Jo thought, easing back, had probably been pushing it. The storm was going to be a bad one, the string of them that had rolled in throughout April bringing new meaning to the idea of April’s showers.
This was going to be a drowning.
The first heavy drops smacked down against the windscreen, water exploding out in a splat, loud enough to be heard over the buzz of the stereo. She wasn’t even going to make it back to down before it hit. Jo stiffened in her seat, easing up on the accelerator as she wove down the rural round. The dark pressed in heavier from the trees on either side, the visibility shrinking as those bullet-like rain drops hit harder. Thumbing on the wipers, Jo tried to clear her view but the heavens had opened up then, a curtain of rain rocketing down from the sky. Maybe she should’ve waited it out in her office, lingered with a cup of coffee to watch the storm break from a place of relative safety. Maybe she should’ve goosed the pedal while she could’ve done.
A few second either way would’ve made the difference when the shape shot out of the trees. A big amorphous blob amongst their silver streaks, blurring across her path in a way that had her shriek breaking the beat of the music this time. The squeal of tires, the jarring thump of wheels over the berm of the road, dark ranks of trees streaking past the driver’s window.
Crack.
Not a shudder this time but a bone rattling crunch as the front end of the car hit a tree. The hood crumpled, steam rushing out into that cold damp air. The world turned white as the air bag deployed in her face. Jo automatically threw her arms up, instinctively covering her face. Numbing pain shot through them as the world went from explosive to shockingly still in an instant. Paralyse and shock replaced by pain and the desperation to move as she sucked in a breath.
Jo shoved at the air bag. Ears ringing, fingers struggling to work right as the snapped bones in her forearms healed in a rush, she fumbled at the seat belt. Snared herself in it as she unlatched the driver’s door and kicked at it to get it far open enough to fall out onto that soaking ground on hands and knees.
Moment by moment the world started to right itself. Blood streaked hands pale against the dark dirt as she clawed her way away from the car. Reaching the edge of the road Jo stood, turned around unsteadily to look at it. The whole front end concertinaed, those plumes of steam still rising. Wrecked, luckily she hadn’t been with it. It was harder to be hurt by such things being what she was but not impossible, impalement by a branch would’ve had her just as dead.
Light filled the air, cutting through those silver streaks of rain. Jo winced away from it, her forearms came up in protection again, spreading to wave as she realised a car was coming towards her. Not risking being mown down she stayed on the side of the road, waving until, thank God, it slowed. She approached, wet hair glittering with broken glass and streaked with blood from wounds healed already falling around her face as she ducked down towards the opening window. ”There was an accident … I’m sorry … can you …” Call for a tow? An ambulance like was surely expected? The cops? Jo wasn’t sure where the thought had been going, the thought washing away in all that rain and confusion.
|
|
MAGNUS DAYNE
Vampire
Posts: 95
Played by:
Julia
"You waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town."
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 15:53:50 GMT
|
Post by MAGNUS DAYNE on Apr 20, 2021 18:28:36 GMT
 ━ evil notions come free ━
Often, he thought of his childhood, of his home in England, and especially of his family. Magnus felt blessed he could remember them all; that time and age hadn’t tainted his memory, preserved by the same curse that kept him looking the same as he had since he’d last seen them. His parents, Kaegan, and Kaegan’s family, who’d become his own throughout their lifetime. Throughout Kaegan’s lifetime, at least, which had seemed impossibly long at the time. Two old men━or so they joked━drinking by the fire, with his wife in the corner, a sturdy presence they were both grateful for. Magnus was never able to settle down how he’d always wanted, but he was forever thankful for Johanna━that somebody could give Kaegan the love he deserved.
And when he’d pulled over on his way out of town for business, she was the last person he expected to see.
Magnus didn’t often leave Dementri alone━he didn’t like doing it, worried constantly, but the boy had a shift that night, so he’d be gone for most of it, anyway. He’d been convinced Latimer would take care of Dementri, that he’d be a good mentor when Magnus wasn’t around, but the old vampire was beginning to think he was mistaken. Dementri could’ve been in agony all night, tortured by the constant smell of blood all around him. Magnus was under the impression that the Blood Den was… calmer than he’d recently learned. If anything were to happen, though, they’d work through it. Dementri would learn and try again, and hopefully, Magnus could teach him to not be so hard on himself.
The dark clouds over the treetops put an obvious gloom over the city, a physical representation of what was already there. Just because Mystic Falls had been good to him, didn’t mean it was kind to its citizens. He had a leg-up as an older vampire, one who knew how to control himself and stay out of trouble. Dementri, not so much… and that was another flurry of anxiety working its way through the pit of Magnus’ stomach.
It only increased when he’d pulled up on the scene. Heightened senses didn’t make it any easier to see in the heavy rainfall, but he’d caught sight of a figure waving him down━and the car wrapped around a tree. Magnus, ever so ready to help anyone who needed it, immediately pulled to the side of the road. He would’ve jumped out of the car, but that same figure was moving towards him, beginning to look quite obviously feminine. He decided it’d be less imposing if he stayed seated, as it might’ve made a woman uncomfortable to be stuck outside with him in the middle of the night. And upon rolling down that window and seeing her face, Magnus realized he would be the one blindsided.
It felt like someone had punched him in the gut. Was this real? Was she an ancestor sent to taunt him, or could it be…
She sounded the same. He didn’t want to be gullible, to immediately fall into this, but the image of her was blurring in his vision, and it wasn’t the fog of breath or the rain that still pelted down. “Johanna?” Magnus croaked, staring for only a second longer before he finally got out of the car, caution thrown to the wind━other than making sure he didn’t hit her with the door, of course. He left the car running, tossing it shut behind him as he stood over her. Those rough, old hands came up carefully, cupping her cheeks and avoiding any spots of blood. If this was Johanna━if she was real━she must’ve been immune to minor nicks like that, but he still held her as if she were the glass littering her hair, as fragile as ever.
“God, please tell me it’s you. Tell me this isn’t a dream,” His gravelly voice came close to a whimper, broken, just as he’d been when he’d come to terms with the fact that they’d all passed away. Johanna first, after she’d gone away and word returned of her death. He hadn’t ever considered how strange her disappearance was until now, though. Perhaps this was why; perhaps she’d left for the same reason he eventually had━because they weren’t ageing. Magnus wrapped her up in a matter of moments, wanting nothing but to keep her safe in his arms, a little piece of his first life.
JOHANNA BAI |  |
|
JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
|
Post by JOHANNA BAI on Apr 21, 2021 19:04:38 GMT
It was always came back to the Road. As a small child it had been a thing of adventure, as a fourteen year old it had been her escape from the green eyed desperation of her step mother, it had been her path to Kaegan, her path away from him too when Philippa had damned the salad days of her marriage that she’d once imagined they’d have. The two of them grey and decrepit, huddled around the fireplace in their small home, hands knotted together, the sound of their sons’ work clanging through the entire village like the hammers were ringing in celebration. When all that had come to an end, Jo had mused a thousand times over when she’d gone back on one road or another, it had been her way to evade the grief that wanted to crush her every time she thought of all that she had been forced to leave behind. Kaegan, their sons, grandchildren, Magnus.
Now being run off of one had brought her full circle again. That decision to turn back on herself instead of finding another shore, another strange land to lose herself in landing her right back in that crowded little cottage, the air damp, clothes sticking to their skin from the mad rush through the village, not yet dried by the fire that had always been roaring. The heat beginning to sizzle on the surface of skin that could be chilled by the rain then as laughter had gone up from the three of them … her, Kaegan … Magnus.
Pushing her hair back from her face as a gust of that saturated wind tore it across her ears, Johanna stared at the blue eyes fixed on her from beyond that lowered window. The premature gloom wrapping his face in shadows but even without the croak of his voice she would have known those eyes, the granite hewn lines of a face she’d seen as boy and man. Untouched by the ravages of the years thanks to Philippa. Both of them caught in that trap no matter how many roads they had followed since. Jo let out a long breath, her fingers settling unsteadily on the top edge of the lowered window, that faint plume of mist thin as smoke in the air. It blew away before her own voice emerged again, rustier than it had been. ”Magnus.” Seven hundred years hadn’t changed her accent or his, not seeming to exist at all in fact as he pushed the door open.
She stepped back, hands held down in front of her until her fingers began to knot in the sodden folds of the dress clinging to her legs. The rain hitting her skin with that vicious punch, diluting the blood that had stripped it and the bruises that had blossomed under her skin with the already healed crack of bone. Pink drops dripping from them, falling to stain her skirt as he loomed over her. Johanna shook her head as she tilted her head back. Joy and grief and everything in between breaking through the dizzying shock of the crash.
Slowly her hands rose, curling around his thick wrists, thumbs bracketing his. Her vision still swam at the edges, seemingly in and out with the force of the gusts that rattled raindrops against the pair of them. A huff a breath escaping again, those thin plumes of condensation not enough to obscure the face she had never forgotten. ”If it is one it would be strange indeed,” she whispered, ”and it could’ve done without wrapping me around a tree.” Lips pressed together, Johanna nodded, fingertips squeezing against the tender undersides of his wrist. ”It is me Magnus. I … can’t believe it’s you.” As if she hadn’t known what Philippa had done to him but that was a truth she had kept from him all that time. Years passing with that sapphire blue stone biting into her palm as she hide her own. Better a lie than to have to reveal that horror to Kaegan and erase the peace he might have found with his life.
His arms were around her then, strong, like they had been then, drawing her close against the solidity of him. She felt light headed as she let her hands slide from his wrists to his back. Fingers folding into fabric already going damp as her cheek found his chest. ”I am glad you were to find me … strange but … what were you doing here?” There was a clouding to her eyes as she drew her head back to look up at him, a sway to her body that had her clutching harder at him. Here and just here on the road such different things, her mind still rattled, unable to fit the two parts of the question together in a way that didn’t make her head swim the way her vision already was.
|
|
MAGNUS DAYNE
Vampire
Posts: 95
Played by:
Julia
"You waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town."
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 15:53:50 GMT
|
Post by MAGNUS DAYNE on May 11, 2021 18:12:26 GMT
━ evil notions come free ━
Each time he moved on, Magnus left a pierce of himself behind. Another addition to his story, more faces and names added to the list that would continue to grow forevermore. Another chapter closed off and put behind him. Johanna was part of the first-ever chapter, the story he thought had ended long before. Here she was, though, in the flesh and in his arms, so… alive. Never did he once think she’d come back into his life, but that only caused further rejoicing. She spoke his name, and he knew it was all true━she was here somehow, thankfully, and had given him more happiness than he’d felt in a long, long time.
‘If it is one it would be strange indeed, and it could’ve done without wrapping me around a tree.’
It wasn’t necessarily a funny statement, though there was a laugh escaping him anyway, more astonishment and excitement than anything else. His mouth gaped a smile at her, thumb gently brushing back and forth along her cheek. Tears filled his eyes just the same as hers, a slow breath coming next, as if her confirmation was all he needed to believe this to be true. It had to be. He didn’t have a habit of slipping into a dream-like state and conjuring up images of his past, and a vision while asleep had never felt as real as this one. It was hard to accept, though━especially after living so long with the assumption that she’d passed.
And oh how he’d missed her.
Gathering Johanna up into his arms, he silently vowed never to let her go again. He had hundreds of questions, and Magnus was sure they’d all be answered eventually, but nothing mattered more at that moment than the fact that she was was still alive.
‘I am glad you were to find me … strange but … what were you doing here?’
Magnus tilted his chin down to look into her eyes, one arm secured around her waist, the opposite hand sliding up to cradle the back of her skull, fingers disappearing into the mass of fine, dark hair. “I could ask ya the same thing.” he smiled again, searching her face again. No signs of ageing, though he’d been sure of that much already. “I was leavin’ town for the night, a business meetin’…” He raised his head for only a second to gesture with it, toward the mass of darkness where she’d appeared from, like an angel returning to him.
This town. It was always this bloody town, giving gifts and seemingly never asking for anything in return━it surely would, though. Magnus knew better than to expect all this without a price. For now, however, he refused to look a gift horse in the mouth.
His eyes came back to her own, another bright grin pulling at the skin on his features, wrinkles appearing from where they’d been for so long now, never worsening nor vanishing. “Ya don’t… live in Mystic Falls, do ya?” It would’ve been too perfect. A ‘small world’ demonstrated in this town alone, though somehow large enough to keep them apart for centuries, never crossing paths. “We should sit in the car where it’s warm. You’ll catch your…” death out here. The smile faltered, and Magnus was suddenly pulled back to reality, in which none of this should’ve been possible. Johanna was meant to be dead long ago, just like her husband, his best friend whom he’d also left behind.
Taking a small step backward, his hand fell from her hair, other arm loosening only enough to put an inch or so between them. His now-freed grip moved to the rear door handle, pulling it open in offering. They could sit there, shielded from the rain while they waited for a tow truck, and wouldn’t have to worry about the centre console putting any space between them.
JOHANNA BAI | |
|
JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
|
Post by JOHANNA BAI on May 31, 2021 15:52:58 GMT
They had been there in her dreams. Centuries since she had last seen them in life, almost real enough to touch, the heartache when she woke and her children’s laughter wasn’t really ringing in the windows from the street outside and Kaegan wasn’t curled into her in that narrowed bed they had shared in a home that would’ve fitted three fold into the apartment she had rented here. Shaking fingers reaching out to the other side of crisp white sheets as they she could still feel her husband’s warmth right there. It was all they could be to her thanks to the queen. The road of her life forced on diversion, the twists and turns in that of those she loved taken without her there. Johanna knew that holding onto to the thought of it all, her emotions continually stuck in that on position, was only extending her heart ache. She could not go back but it didn’t mean that in her mind’s weakest moments, she couldn’t look back to them.
Magnus had featured in those dreams from time to time, glimpses of him with her husband, their friendship always such an integral part of their lives even as Magnus had gone to fight with the King … even after the Queen had surely …
The grief of that struck her with the suddenness of that tree appearing out of nowhere as she stood there in the downpour, her hands wrapped around his wrists. Solid but not entirely alive, in the same way she had not been for all those centuries. Her eyes fluttered shut at the sound of his laughter, that heartache becoming something warmer as she opened her eyes again and caught the full beam of that smile, Magnus’ thumb skimming her cheekbone a comfort to soothe the wound of seeing his eyes fill with tears the same way his own had. ”Fate has a funny way,” Johanna breathed, a thick sheath of emotion over her words. Stripped further as Magnus had pulled her into his arms and held her fiercely.
Johanna allowed herself to cling to him in return. Shivers still ran through her, the storm, the shock, the toll on her body and heart all thrown into the shudder of her body. It wanted to give way to sobs, a relief of all those years of grief in a way, but she held on. Her dark hair wet and clinging to his shirt as she forced herself to straighten up and meet those blue eyes again. Lips pale with it all forming the words that might reveal his own road to her. A breathless laugh rolled out of her as Magnus drew her close, an arm still thick with muscle sliding around her waist, the gnarled fingers of a life hard lived before his rebirth sliding into the wet strands of her hair. ”Leaving?” she asked hollowly. Not … not now, even if it was just for a single night. She drew in a breath, feeling the sway of herself against him as she half twisted to watch where he was indicating. Leaving for a night, indicating that it was his place. One that they had perhaps unknowingly shared.
Her grip shifted, disbelief leaving her to laugh softly. Johanna gripped at his side, the solidity of the bow of his ribs an anchor in a way that kept her upright. The wounds alone should not have left her unsteady. Once upon such a crash might have killed her, the same way a fall from North Wind could have done to a lesser rider, but times had long ago changed. Now it was the reeling of thought, of shock leaving her unsteady. ”For a handful of years. I … I teach … at the college. Perhaps it would’ve been wiser to stay there tonight, at least until the rain stopped.” Over seven hundred years of life and there were still times where wisdom evaded her, cast aside by that innate certainty that she could face whatever was ahead of her on the road.
Magnus was drawing back then, his sense of chivalry pushing them towards the security of his car. The care he had always shown towards her keeping her upright after the shock of seeing him had struck, his astute mind putting the pieces together now in a way that had Johanna’s fingers loosening their hold upon him. Her head dipped, her hair tumbling into her face as she hid her face from him. He was withdrawing, opening the rear door of the car and leaving the vacuum of expectation hanging there that she would have to feel. Johanna kept one hand on him, pressed to his chest as she slid past. Fresh tears brimmed, the knowledge that she would have to admit to the lies she had given to protect them all making her eyes burn.
A scuttle across the back seat, the wet cling of her dress making it difficult. She huddled against the other side, her arms wrapping around herself, her fingers pulling at the sleeves of her dress as she tried to prevent the marble cold of her flesh from shattering her. ”I’m sorry,” she whispered when he slid in after her, pale eyes peering from behind that dark waterfall of hair to half watch him. ”For not … telling you then. For lying to you and Kaegan. I could see no other way. I knew …” What Phillipa had done to him. She wanted to apologise then for not having done something more. It had been obvious that the queen had her claws in him long before her fangs had taken his life, the future she had always hoped would bless him. She would not believe it had been a damnation, no more than her own had been, but it was not what she had believed fate had mapped out for either one of them.
|
|
MAGNUS DAYNE
Vampire
Posts: 95
Played by:
Julia
"You waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town."
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 15:53:50 GMT
|
Post by MAGNUS DAYNE on Jun 8, 2021 16:04:40 GMT
━ evil notions come free ━
Magnus couldn’t imagine how fickle and funny fate, or perhaps God, was. This town, so small and unassuming, apparently held secrets even he could never imagine. If either of them had been a second late, or if it hadn’t rained so heavily, or if she’d regained control over her car, they could’ve never come across each other again━like two ships passing in the night. And perhaps they had before━with that old devil keeping them apart━Magnus exiting a shop before she entered or Johanna passing his own on the streets of Mystic Falls and never venturing inside. “If you had, we’d wouldn’t ‘ave met here.” The thought alone tore at his heart. That she was here, by herself (he assumed), and just out of reach. “Seems we’ve gone many years without meetin’ already.” He was in and out of Mystic Falls a lot of the time, only settled in the last few months, but that didn’t negate the point.
And maybe the point didn’t matter anymore. Johanna was here, safe and moving with Magnus to his car, slipping into the back seats he offered. The hand around her waist slipped away, lifting to press his palm to her fingers on his chest, another gentle touch while she took shelter. He’d planned to close the door and circle the car in the rain, but she was offering up that space to him, gracious and politely rejecting the pompous chivalry like always. It was bred in him, but Johanna was a foreigner to their home, and Magnus… he couldn’t believe how long ago that was.
He climbed in and shut the door, finding it strange to sit in the rear seats of his own car, though that was probably the most normal thing about all this. Blue eyes skimmed her frame, frowning at the way she curled her arms around herself and hid behind her wet hair. That thick tumble of chestnut, always quick to cover her face when she needed it to━Magnus found himself hating that now, wishing he could... ah, hell. He reached out slowly, again closing the gap between them, hard-worked and dry fingers being as gentle and as deft as ever, pushing away her hair and curling around her ear━away from that gorgeous face. He’d only ever been jealous of Kaegan a handful of times in their lives, usually pushing away the feeling and replacing it with happiness and pride for his friend. Mostly, it was over the family Kaegan could have, and how he was allowed to be so open and loving with his wife. Maybe once or twice Magnus had seen Jo as a sweet woman whom he’d love to have as his own, but it’d never gone farther than that. That was over seven centuries ago, though━they were both vampires, and regular rules no longer applied.
“It’s alright.” Gently, he hushed away her apology, fingers curling under her chin. “Ya don’t need to apologize. I understand.” He felt that restrictiveness on his throat, though, tears clouding his vision again. Letting out a quiet, “Ah,” As if to whisk it away, Magnus sniffed and once again cut their contact to lean between the seats, putting up the heating by a few notches. The fans whirred loudly, and he completely cut off the quiet music thrumming from the car’s speakers. Leaning back again, Magnus snatched his jacket in the passenger’s seat and offered it up to her, held out by the shoulders. He would’ve put it on her himself, but their positioning in the back seats made it difficult. “Sorry, I’d forgotten I had it in here.” And he was too preoccupied with seeing Johanna again to think of it.
Settling once more, Magnus swallowed thickly, trying to keep some space between them with the way she pressed to the other side of the seats. He wanted to assume it was only to provide room for him, especially considering how they’d embraced one another only moments before, but he didn’t want to take the chance of making her uncomfortable. So, instead, he kept a few inches distance, though desperately wished to hold her in his arms again.
“You knew I was one, too? We could have…” It didn’t matter anymore, and he might only make her feel guilty for no reason at all. He wished he would’ve had someone else to confide in, though. Someone to knock some sense into him about Philippa, but he’d learned long ago that things happened the way they did for a reason, and there was no use crying over the ways you wanted to change it. “Is that why ya left and had ‘em tell us you’d fallen ill?” Magnus knew the answer already, but he wanted her to tell him. To keep talking, not only because it felt like he had pins and needles in his throat, but because he wanted to hear her voice again.
“I left eventually, too, so I’m not blamin’ you for any of it.” He sighed. At least she had a story, she’d made it believable. He’d just up and vanished one day. “I don’t know if you ‘eard, but Philippa… she passed a few years after you left.” It still hurt like it’d happened yesterday, a furrow of his brow as he processed it, blue eyes falling downwards. “She was th’one who turned me. Found ‘er one day, lyin’ in bed, a stake through ‘er ‘eart.” Though he’d never spoken a word of their affair to anyone, it was gossiped about countless times no matter how careful they’d been. Magnus assumed that if Jo hadn’t known then, she could surely put the pieces together now, especially as he sat there like a boy who’d just gotten his heart broken. He wasn’t only mourning for Philippa, but for their children, and the ones he thought were his own.
JOHANNA BAI | |
|
JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
|
Post by JOHANNA BAI on Jul 24, 2021 18:40:26 GMT
Had they truly been close for so long? Roads lain alongside one another, never taking that slight curve to bring them together. A single step, a different route taken through town one day, a different road taken home, a single choice made to hurry home instead of waiting out the rain all it had taken to have them careening into one another in the end.
If her head hadn’t already been spinning from the crash it would have done anyway at the thought. Johanna’s lips trembled slightly, the laughter wanting to curl out but she didn’t have the breath to make it happen. Her past had seemed so distant for so long, beyond her tangible grip but Magnus was right there now, her fingers clutching at his storm dampened shirt. Eyes burning with the choking emotion of it all, Johanna shook her head. ”This town has a way of hiding things until its ready to reveal them.” Fate’s hand laying heavy of it, controlling those that lay within as the sands had once controlled everything on the Silk Road, swallowing the path one day, blowing back to reveal its majesty the next. The rain hadn’t hidden much but the road but it had revealed more than she ever could’ve asked for.
Now it acted as a shield between them and the world they might’ve returned to. Hemming her in off the road, caught up in the warmth of the vehicle, keeping Magnus from heading back out to wherever he’d been heading. It hid the wreckage of her car outside, wrapping around her as slithered across the rear seat. Johanna pressed back against the door, pulling her dress around herself like she could keep the warmth trapped into flesh that held little of it now. From behind the screen of her hair she offered her weak apology, expecting it to put a wedge back between the two of them but instead Magnus was reaching out. Those fingers that had held a sword with an unmistakable grace brushed her hair back now, removing that screen from between the two of them. Her lips pressed together as the tears started to brim over her lids.
One hand released her sleeve, coming up to brush them away as she shook her head, even in that light grip of his fingers. It wasn’t alright, they had grieved for her, as she had for them, her children, her grandchildren, growing without her. ”It’s not,” she whispered. ”I should have found some way to stay, to tell you…” But she hadn’t known how and for the sake of not breaking their hearts in one way she had broken them in another. As he released her to lean forward between the seats to fiddle with the controls Jo sucked in a breath, both hands sweeping the tears away from her cheeks now, the dam breeched, the breaking point approaching.
Before she could fold back around herself Magnus was drawing back, his jacket caught in his fingers. Offered up like a blanket. She looked at him for a moment, studying the familiar lines of his face before she reached for it. ”Thank you,” she whispered. She eased forward, wrapping it around herself and drawing it in like a cocoon. Fingers curling into the lapels, the familiar scent of him rising from the fabric as she drew it up around her face. When she settled back it was a few inches closer.
Almost shyly she glanced sideways at him as his question came. She had told him almost as much in those last broken words. Johanna lifted her chin and nodded, her throat working. ”Philippa told me as much when I confronted her … before she turned me too. You were hers … I would not have asked you to leave her … or them … to come with me. You were the one I trusted to watch over Kaegan too.” She had known one day he would likely have to leave too but perhaps he could have lingered longer than she had. Jo’s hand came up, swiping almost angrily over her cheek to dash away the tears again. ”I couldn’t burden them with this. I didn’t know any other way to have them let me go.” Every word she had written in that letter, that she had coached Elizabeth to write for her, had broken her heart.
She had known there was no way Magnus would be able to stay forever. Immortality had caught up to him the same way it had to her. Johanna stared down at her hand for a moment before she had extended it to him, settling it over his to squeeze lightly. "I heard,” she promised hoarsely. ”For a time I remained in contact with Elizabeth. She told me some of what happened.” Never too much though, just enough to ease her guilt and reassure her that her family were OK. ”I’m sorry.” Johanna’s voice dropped to a whisper. ”The day she turned me I went to her to beg her to make sure you would be safe. I had realised …you and her were … I guess she saw it as a threat and did what she had to in order protect you both. They were yours, weren’t they? Did they ever know?” The children he would have had to leave behind as she had her own. Jo’s throat felt thick again, she shifted her hand until her fingers were laced with his. Slowly she eased into his side, seeking that warmth, the comfort he had given her as he held her out in the rain. Her head resting against one brawny shoulder, anchored there with the connection of their hands.
|
|
MAGNUS DAYNE
Vampire
Posts: 95
Played by:
Julia
"You waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town."
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 15:53:50 GMT
|
Post by MAGNUS DAYNE on Aug 23, 2021 19:24:36 GMT
━ evil notions come free ━
But he definitely felt a certain way now, what with her not only relating to their shared species, but being a figure from his first life━his childhood. They were connected in a way he hadn’t been to anyone since Philippa. Even then, she was a newcomer to England━hadn’t been there as long as Johanna. The feeling grew stronger as he watched tears shed from those almond eyes, and nearly brushed them away, though she got to them first.
Magnus nodded at her gratitude, happy to provide if it made her more comfortable. Magnus, however, grew less so the more they spoke of his dead lover. Philippa, the only one to truly capture his heart. He knew now (and probably then, too) that she’d been manipulating him, but it didn’t stop Magnus from believing there was something underneath. Perhaps it died when she had, though he spent the rest of their days together searching for it. And, when the love affair was over, he was left with only guilt. For sleeping with his surrogate son’s wife, and fathering children he never knew were illegitimate.
Apparently, Johanna had known all along and didn’t think less of him.
He would be lying if he said that Philippa’s behaviour towards Johanna surprised him. Johanna still sat with him, even none, despite knowing he was in love with a monster. A monster who’d made them the same, and against Johanna’s will. Or maybe she, too, didn’t dwell on the hardships of the past. He sighed at the thought of Philippa’s angry face, twisted up and filled with hate, a fire practically visible in her brown eyes.
Jo trusted him to watch over Kaegan and her children, but he had to leave them behind, too. He could only assume that nothing happened after he left━there was no use in worrying otherwise; either way, they were dead now.
“Confronted ‘er? About us?” The guilt rushed back, no matter how much he preached about letting go of the past. It wasn’t the past anymore when it was in front of you, sitting in your car and swaddled in your coat. “I’m sorry she turned you because of that━because of me. She was never short of anger, but she should never ‘ave…” But she had, and it was the reason they were together now. “I suppose, in the end, I can thank ‘er for givin’ me you, but it can’t be worth all you’ve surely been through.” It was as though Philippa was his dog, one who’d bitten somebody and now the responsibility of fixing it rested with Magnus.
Magnus breathed out slowly when he felt her touch his hand, turning it over to clasp them in each other’s hold. He listened to Johanna’s story, still pained by it, just as he was of the heartbreak. Could you call that love? It was… more ownership, wasn’t it? Men were always bound to women in more ways than one, but with Magnus and Philippa, it had been different. He thought everything was━or that she’d at least turned him out of love. She did the same to Jo, and clearly didn’t love her. This truly was a curse, though he’d known that since she died. “I’m sorry.” He apologized again, blue eyes trained on his lap, a small shake to his head. Disappointed. In a fucking ghost. “Only Isabella.” He croaked, swallowing thickly through the sharp feeling at the thought of his daughter━at all of them, as he’d loved each as if they were his own. “She told me Joan was, as well, but revealed the lie after turning me. Joan was one of Edward’s bastards from another woman. Philippa took ‘er in to uphold the lie. Nobody knew.” A spiderweb by the time of her murder.
Magnus welcomed her as Johanna moved in, a knee-jerk, human reaction he still couldn’t shake━trying to keep her warm despite both being vampires. He didn’t know how long it’d been since he had really felt warm, could barely remember the sensation, but it didn’t stop Magnus from his attempt at providing it for Jo. He wrapped his free arm around her front, a little awkward given their tight confines but he wasn’t about to release her hand. Long fingers stretched around her bicep to rub it, still reaching for a heat he couldn’t provide. He held her for a while before finally speaking again, trying to forget the topics of the last few moments.
“Would ya like to come back to my ‘ome? We can call a tow truck from there, and ‘ave a drink. You can stay the night, if you’d like.” She was heading somewhere when the accident happened, Magnus knew that much, but just as he’d given up on his plans for the rest of the evening, he hoped she would, too. Johanna was more important than whatever business venture he was headed towards.
JOHANNA BAI | |
|
JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
|
Post by JOHANNA BAI on Sept 20, 2021 16:18:05 GMT
Only two others had ever heard the story of what had happened. Both had kept the truth bound tight to their chests – for her sake, she knew. Jo’s own heart, as still as it was in her chest now, ached for them still, almost as much for Ananda and Elizabeth as it did for Kaegan and their children, as it had for the man beside her too. Concern for him had driven her to Philippa’s chambers when a request on her lips for the sake of a man who had been as much a brother to her husband as a friend. A man who had been a friend to her, despite her distant origins.
Jo turned her hand over as she dropped it back to her lap, her fingers damp from her own tears as they had been that night by the fire. She had still been able to taste the guard’s blood then, like her the unfulfilling taste of her own on her lips now. A quick dart of her lips and she had squirmed away from Ananda’s touch, the firelight only serving to highlight the throb of his pulse in his throat before Elizabeth had stepped between the two of them, aware of just what the Queen had forced her to become. Magnus was snared, there had to be something for them to do to free him. The answer when it had come had torn at some part of her. Pressing her hand to her stomach, Jo tried to rub the feeling away. All she had managed to do with her ultimatum with the queen was get herself in as deep as Magnus.
The truth had died in her throat after, locked away for the safety of them all. Philippa’s threat still hanging over her head. Swaddled in Magnus’ coat she could finally admit to it now. The collar of his coat brushed her chin as she nodded, her lips, still pale and a little bloodless from the press of them together to avoid the tears spilling back out. ”About you. About what the King would do if he discovered that the two of you were sleeping together.” Her brows drew together, her hand reaching out blindly, finding his thigh to squeeze in assurance. ”It is not your apology to give. She saw a way to stop me from going to the King myself at any point. One word me and she would have had the King’s guard cut me down.” There had been no choice in the matter, very little to anything since.
Her hand clasping his, Jo finally found a smile within herself. Wan – it was all she could manage as everything that had burdened her soul for centuries had started to slip out, the dyke finally breached. ”We both have her to thank for that. I can’t … I can’t weight up what might’ve been or what happened. It’s a blessing to be here now.” With him. There could’ve been a thousand different endings to her story, her road, some laced with far more pain than she’d suffered in the centuries she’d been given.
It had taken pain this time to bring the two of them together. That motion on the road tonight. The flare of her own headlights against the tree. The jolting crash that had stolen what breath she did have until he’d been there. A white knight in a car, riding up out of her past in a way that still had her knees feeling weak. Jo shook her head at Magnus’ apology, tears swimming in her blue-grey eyes as hr other hand closed over his, sandwiching warm fingers between her own. ”But you loved them both as though they were both your own,” she managed hoarsely, knowing he would have done no less. That trust in a woman who had played him costing him a portion of his fatherhood. ”You had a good heart, always have had one.” And Philippa had took advantage of that, her own turning just a way of keeping that advantage. In the process she had left her mark on the man she had lured to her bed.
Jo felt her heart breaking for him and all that he too had forced to leave behind. In that constantly moving current of life they were the only two left from where they had slipped into that water together. Curling into his side she anchored herself to him, clinging on to the miracle of the two of them finding one another in all of that turbulence. ”Thank you.” The word whispered out, gratitude naked on her face as he reached across her, bringing her in, fingers rubbing and down her arm, working some heat back into her as silence settled like a blanket. Jo eased into it, her eyes slipping shut as she breathed her in. The same scent that had always been there below everything else and it felt like home.
She made a small sound when Magnus spoke again. Jo tilted her head up, her eyes heavy lidded, fixed on his profile. Shifting slightly, she burrowed further into his coat. ”I wouldn’t be an imposition? You were …” As if it occurred to her, she frowned lightly, glancing around. ”You were on your way out of town.” Stilling, she swallowed, only managing to nod when a small, grateful smile broke through. ”I’d appreciate it. I don’t think the garage will be able to do much with the car but your company would be very welcome. I’m not so sure I’m ready to let you slip away yet.” Even if it was just for a few hours. They were caught in the same eddy now and Jo knew she would thrash through any waters to keep her past in sight now.
|
|
MAGNUS DAYNE
Vampire
Posts: 95
Played by:
Julia
"You waste time trying to get people to love you, you'll end up the most popular dead man in town."
Last seen Nov 17, 2024 15:53:50 GMT
|
Post by MAGNUS DAYNE on Sept 28, 2021 17:03:01 GMT
━ evil notions come free ━
Magnus had done his time taking in strays. Edward’s father, and then the third namesake himself, raised almost as though he was Magnus’ son alone. He hoped Johanna’s words weren’t meant to placate an old man, but he wasn’t sure he could allow himself the satisfaction even after all this time. Yes, they were his children; every single one of Philippa’s children felt… tied to him. Not in the same way her husband had been, though it was strange to think of it that way. He hadn’t wanted to breach that trust, and he spent hundreds of years torturing himself for it. In the end, love could not be helped, he supposed, but Philippa definitely ushered it along with her lies and manipulation.
He hoped his heart was still true━decisions made with a combination of brains and love, but perhaps that was what tangled him in this predicament with Lincoln. A boy he’d been desperate to save, turning him in the process and dragging him into this endless life he’d never asked for. Lincoln was like a son to Magnus in the same way they all were, though he’d never fed any of them his blood and forced them to join in on this journey. There was some free will there, of course, but it wasn’t much. Complete the transition or die, and mortals of any fashion would do absolutely anything to stay alive. It was an instinct he had now. So, no, it was not truly a choice. He’d burdened Lincoln with this, and Magnus was sure the boy would never let him forget it.
He trusted that Jo wouldn’t lie to him the way Philippa always had. He trusted her judgement, and so he tried to believe her now. A good heart. Perhaps that’s what made it so━his desperation to always strive to do good.
Magnus clutched her now, soft but still secure, settling into silence together━until he’d broken it. He couldn’t let her go now, not after their sudden reunion. And he could think of nothing better than curling up near the fireplace with Jo, a blanket and perhaps a warm drink━or one to make them feel warm. She could meet Lincoln, as well, if the boy got home at a decent time and hadn’t been worked to death.
Though, it was unlikely they’d stop talking once they got started, he would put money on that.
“You will never impose.” He said it matter-of-factly, turning his chin down to meet her gaze, closer than he’d thought, though Magnus didn’t move an inch. Becoming infected by her smile, he grew his own, nodding. He’d forgotten all about his meeting. “Ah, I’ll send an email. ‘umans ‘ate meetin’s so much these days that they’ve created ways to conduct them from the comfort of their own beds━I’ll reschedule. All of it will be ‘andled.” And, without saying so: I’m not letting you go anywhere.
“Of course.” Magnus agreed, and allowed them to sit in silence like that for a little while longer. Holding Jo until they’d settled long enough, eventually, they moved, his car and life turned around and headed back to the only place it seemed held the only things that mattered.
JOHANNA BAI | de end! |
|
