Comments | taxonomites: 006. [ voice & location: sanctuary for all ] and you give yourself away, with or without you.

notanemptymotto in taxonomites

006. [ voice & location: sanctuary for all ] and you give yourself away, with or without you.

Oct 17, 2009 21:10

It was rare for Helen Magnus to actually fall asleep. As Will had so brilliantly put it: she kept an eye on the ranch. Fatigue did catch up to the Victorian woman eventually. It led her falling asleep on the couch in her office. Merely a cat nap. Perhaps it would have been longer if it the dreams she had were truly happy ones.

( cut for tl;dr/spoilers. warning: may induce heartbreak. )

helen magnus, { john druitt, { ashley magnus, { winifred burkle, { bruce banner

Comments 81

[ location: sanctuary (for all) ] redeemedripper October 18 2009, 05:00:46 UTC

Nightmares were nothing new for John. He had been having them for the better part of a century, and even in his recovered healthy, they plagued him. They had subsided drastically since Helen had allowed him residence in her Sanctuary. The accommodations were still on shaky terms, at best, but he was simply lingering on the edge of what Helen felt comfortable with ( ... )

[ location: sanctuary (for all) ] notanemptymotto October 18 2009, 05:27:58 UTC

Helen looked up at John. She was clearly trying to stop sobbing now. Hold it all in, bottle it up. She had done so with James's death. When she thought her father had died. She could do the same about Ashley. Couldn't she?

Except both James and Ashley were dead because of her mistakes. And the head of the Tokyo Sanctuary. And New Deli. And Moscow. And Clara Griffin.

"John." She let out a sob as she said his name. "Ashley... she..."

[ location: sanctuary (for all) ] redeemedripper October 18 2009, 15:55:41 UTC

He entered her room slowly. For as much as he wanted to comfort her, John was still unsure about what his place was in this home. He reached her side just as she let out his name.

"I know." He said, knowing that the words would be too much. "I know, Helen. I don't know what this place is or what it does to people, but could it be a lie?" He could feel it in his bones. It was as much the truth as anything else unbelievable in their lives. He was grasping at straws, trying to give Helen hope.

One hand tentatively moved to rest on her back. There was an awkwardness in his show of comfort. To part of him, this was second nature, but he wasn't ever sure when he had overstep his boundaries.

[ location: sanctuary (for all) ] notanemptymotto October 19 2009, 01:37:12 UTC

"She's dead!" Helen yelled at the top of her lungs. She needed to express it. To let it all out. "She's dead because I failed! I failed to protect her, for God sakes, John! I can ... I can protect every Abnormal in the world but not my daughter!"

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[location: sanctuary (for all)] gammapulsed October 18 2009, 05:48:56 UTC

Bruce really spent too much time in the hallways of the Sanctuary. But really, it was better than staying holed up in his room, so it was some kind of progress. Small progress, but you take what you can get.

But when Helen ran past him, the look on her face floored him. From everything he'd seen of the woman, this set every alarm ringing and he went after her. If it wasn't for the random Extra-residents and regular residents just getting in the way (the hallways being too narrow for fruit carts, something had to get in the way), he would have caught up to her faster.

By the time he'd gotten to the lab, there was a low beeping from his wrist, but Bruce was in decent enough shape to brush it off with a glance. Especially as Helen was collapsing in front of him. "Dr. Magnus...!"

[location: sanctuary (for all)] notanemptymotto October 18 2009, 05:58:36 UTC

Her gaze lifted slightly to see Bruce enter the room. It just dawned on her now that most likely several inhabitants of the Sanctuary had seen her running at an alarming rate. But, she was glad they just let her run. Run until she couldn't and collapsed. She couldn't run away from it anymore. Ashley was gone.

Helen tried to speak but it came out more of a chocked sob. "Mr. Harrison."

[location: sanctuary (for all)] gammapulsed October 18 2009, 06:04:14 UTC

A corner of his mind, the one always counting heartbeats per second and checking for possible exits, noted the monitor had silenced itself. But the rest of Bruce's brain was on the woman on the floor.

He stepped gingerly into the lab and bent down in front of her. Shaking his head at the formality, he asked, "What happened?" Maybe if he knew what was wrong, he could try and fix it, or help somehow.

Then he ignored the other corner of his mind that whispered he'd only make it worse, just like always.

[location: sanctuary (for all)] notanemptymotto October 18 2009, 06:08:35 UTC

What happened? Helen didn't think she could retell it all. There was so much to tell, so much she would have to explain. Admitting to herself and to someone else that Ashley's death was her fault. She couldn't do it. Instead her body shook slightly as she tried to hold back another sob. It physically hurt.

"Ashley's gone."

It was the only thing she could manage to say.

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[visual] tendstoramble October 18 2009, 05:53:35 UTC

Fred can be seen looking closely at the screen of her tablet, concern obvious on her face.

"Doctor Magnus...are you alright?"

[visual] notanemptymotto October 18 2009, 06:00:55 UTC

Helen had turned away from the wall the tablet was near. She didn't want to look at it. She couldn't break it to take out her frustration and anger. Instead she ended up breaking. Fred didn't need to see it.

"I'm fine." She managed in between sobs. She had lived through several important people to her dying. She would be fine.

[visual] tendstoramble October 18 2009, 06:04:00 UTC

"Oh. Well, I guess we've got really different definitions of fine back where I come from than you do 'cause you don't really sound fine at all..."

[visual] notanemptymotto October 18 2009, 06:11:40 UTC

If she had been in any other type of mood, she would have snapped at her. Except that was the tone that Helen couldn't handle at the moment. It sounded so much like Ashley when she was making a point. Not that Fred reminded her of Ashley.

She bit her lip again and tried to hold back her sobs. No matter how much it made her shake or hurt her physically. She had to stop. People were seeing now. She had to be strong for everyone when they couldn't. Helen didn't have the luxury of being broken.

"Just some bad memories, Ms. Fred."

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[ visual ] // [ location: sanctuary (for all) ] notthatnormal October 19 2009, 07:36:30 UTC

How she'd gone from being asleep to being stood in the middle of Osten would be a slight mystery to Ashley, though anyone who had seen her would say that she'd just appeared in swirls of red. Ashley had woken feeling confused and scared, the memories from her dream a frightening concept to her. She'd always had a vivid imagination, but this was something that even Ashley wouldn't have expected to create. Being taken by the Cabal, put under mind control and turned into an abnormal? It seemed too real to be a dream, but it-

Her mind stopped thinking as she caught a glance of herself in a reflection, seeing the thing that she'd seen in her dream. Ashley shut her eyes, flashes of the memories coming back again. Her with the others, taking down the Sanctuaries. What stood out most was the last few memories. Her mom, pleading with her, trying to make her Ashley again. She'd succeeded, but that success hadn't lasted long.

"Ashley, please." It hurt. The memories, who she had become. The blood lust, the anger. She didn't feel like Ashley ( ... )

[ location: sanctuary (for all) ] notanemptymotto October 19 2009, 07:44:21 UTC

Helen had gone around the Sanctuary again to try and find Ashley. "David" insisted on it, and at the moment she felt like she could hardly argue with anyone. Let alone a man who was trying his best to help her, despite his apparent insecurities.

She stopped in the hallway and leaned up against the wall. Ashley had to still be in Taxon, somewhere. She couldn't have gone home and died. Not without something to tell her that. She would have known if her daughter had left. She would have. And if she was like in her memories, the EM shield had been lowered for John and her...

Helen turned at the sound of the familiar teleportation. Was it John, or Ashley? She couldn't tell from the hallway she was in.

[ location: sanctuary (for all) ] notthatnormal October 19 2009, 07:54:08 UTC

It took Ashley a moment to work out where exactly she was, walking forwards once she'd caught up with herself. From the main hallway she wasn't quite sure which way to turn, or where her mother would be, if she was even home. Her office, her lab? The possibility of her mother not remembering like she did didn't occur to Ashley, she just needed an answer, at the very least a reassurance.

Finding her didn't take long. Walking from one hallway to the next had let her find her mother, gashes present and that same pain that she'd just left. The whole sight, never mind just one or two little bits broke her. She'd hurt her mom, more in one night than she could ever remember doing.

"Mom?" Her mothers reaction to her seemed far more important than it usually would be, but with what had happened... Fear, anger, sadness... the possibility for happiness seemed to pale in comparison.

[ location: sanctuary (for all) ] notanemptymotto October 19 2009, 08:06:43 UTC

...Mom.

Helen felt the stab again in her chest. Ashley's heartbroken word rang through her mind as she fought back the urge to cry again. It had said so much in just one word. I'm sorry. Good-bye. I love you. Forgive me, okay? Helen let out a small gasp and shut her eyes for a moment to try and gain the small grip again that "David" had so very much helped her fine.

Except when she finally did open her eyes, she saw her daughter standing there. The Cabal uniform, her hair pulled back, and the make up to mark her as something that did not belong to anyone but the Cabal. Except her eyes were blue. Her brilliant blue eyes from her father. Not the red blaring ones from the Source Blood.

"Ashley!"

And without much of a warning, Helen ran to her daughter. She wrapped her arms around her and held her tightly. One hand on her daughter's beautiful golden locks, the other secure around her shoulders.

Thread 25