[PK] Did You Miss Me?

[TaraJess 2848]

 

Wine. Was it the wine that did this? Was it the wine that led her to darkness?

 

It had been years since she last saw him, she had been overcome with emotions every time they interacted. Seemed fitting that he was there in the end, it made sense in her mind, in the half-lucid drunken state she found herself in. He knew pain, perhaps he would understand the hurt she felt, how it made her numb over the years. 

 

They sat, staring at the flames of a campfire, talking for a few hours. One had to take the time to catch up if one was to ask such a massive favor. This was no small thing, this was forever. This was the people she loved, the people she fought for, and the people she'd ultimately let down. 

 

Did you miss me?

 

I knew you'd return.

 

How did the venom in his voice slow? How did it feel like the past? Like a moment stopped in time, so long ago? Old friend, what has happened to the pair of us? What happened? What went wrong? Subtle words, passed back and forth over the crackling fire, though such a noise was not enough to drown out the sound that was death itself, looming over her, waiting. It was a cold touch, but it felt serene. Though tears fell in her final moments, her last grasp of fear was for her loved ones. She gave into it rather quickly. She did not fight it when the cold turned to warmth.

 

Southern waters, the hearth of her childhood home, the feeling of newborn skin under her fingertips. She could feel the fur of the Aveta pelt he gifted her, could hear Kathryn's marital advice again, and saw King John's hands, burnt by malflame. There she was again, fixing those burns of his, making sure the King she rode along with in battle was alright. Faces flashed by, those unique eyes Rylee had, Mons’ white streak in his hair, and Esta… how she had missed that silver hair the most. Was that Laurelie she saw? There were so many people… her mother, old Haenseni friends, her King. 

 

Did you miss me?

 

I knew you'd return.

 

 

To Jean

Spoiler

Recently, upon our 20th wedding anniversary, I promised you 20 more years. I am so sorry that I have broken this promise.

 

Lilithene lays in her crib next to the bed, and several of my things await you next to it as well. Please, my love, do net be in a rush to join me.

 

 

To Lucien, Laurence, & Lilithene

Spoiler

Boys, please take care of your sister. Do net let my memory escape her, even though she was too little to know me. Make sure she makes it to the Amathine, it is tradition. And please, don't be like me and depend on a bottle. You all are better than that, better than me. I am never far away, I walk with you in silence, and I felt no better joy than being your mother.

 

To Lothar & Isidora

Spoiler

Watching you two grow into the people you are today was truly an honor, and being included in your growth was even more so. Lothar, I will never fully rest peacefully for that brief loss of faith, and even in death I will forever be sorry.

 

To Aurellius & the House Greye

Spoiler

Who would have thought that you would have been the last one standing out of our friend group? Make sure your younger know I did net eat children, since your older boys like to lie to children about the great Aunty Jo. And please continue to make sure children and spouses get the infamous Aunty Jo's swimming lessons. Knowing that beach still gets visited makes my soul sing, it has always been a place of happiness for me. Please be there for my husband and children, do net let him feel his grief alone. Have my ashes scattered at that beach, then enjoy its warm waters. Please, I beg of you, invite my brother and his family if there is a funeral or celebration of life.

 

 

To Alf

Spoiler

Please keep your promise to the best of your abilities and watch over our kin. 

 

 

To Valindra

Spoiler

Sorry to miss tea time, but I still think you're a bitch. Thanks for making me look cooler when you took my eye though. I hope Haelun'or burns to the ground and all of your kind burn with it. I look forward to drinking with you in death one day. Bring the wine.

 

 

To the House de Senna

Spoiler

You bare my blood, like it or not. I regret net having the chance to spend more time with you all. To the elders, I am proud of you all for making your way in this world and surviving, despite what you have been through and the hurt you had to live through while growing up. To the youngers, I pray your older siblings talk about me, talk about crazy Aunty Jo. I hope that despite the split of our family, they laugh from the good memories. 

 

 

To Ledi

Spoiler

We were complicated, but I beg of you to net let your family forget me. Yes, we fought on different sides, and yes you found me foolish for it, but please find it in your heart to understand why. I do net know how to put into words everything that I want to say to you, I don't think I ever could, but at the same time I think you'd understand that. You are great, you always have been, and I have always known that. I have looked up to you my entire life, and prayed that I would know even a fraction of the greatness you possess. You were always my favorite, you know that, even despite all that has happened. Even in death I carry that coin you gave me so many years ago. I am glad you were freed of it, but always kept one just in case. I'll see you again one day.

 

 

 

Spoiler

I'm gonna try and tag all the people that have made Jo's story great, but I already know there are too many of you.

 

Johanna Vuiller was my very first character I played after returning from my five year hiatus. She is my first ever char that I have pk'd while my others had passed during my hiatus. 

 

Thank you @Harald and @SmartScout for giving me this char when I returned, I owe my many many MANY new friendships to you, for I wouldn't have met so many amazing people without Jo. Thank you to the Balian/Lotharia community for being so welcoming to me when I returned. Thank you to all the “villians” I got to interact with, specifically @RedResult, @TheOnlyTub, and @cadazio you kind of count too. Jo's story would have been so boring without the absolute DRAMA brought on by you guys, whether it be bandit troubles, an ex lover turned necromancer, or the absolutely amazing family drama that was highlighted with an actual war. You guys are all awesome and I love you all dearly. Thank you to the people down below too, I would have never met you guys if it weren't for Jo. @Montgomery Cobra @xDisarray @Luka_Rei @OwlofMiracles @__Stal27 @_Dairsad_ @Navigator @cadazio @Cheese +so many more

 

 

[Cheese 8883]

"Oh..."

It did not take long for the news to reach the ears of Esfir. At first, she laughed. What a joke, right? Johanna, the strong-willed woman whom brought light to every room, dead? That simply couldn't be possible.

 

"This.. can't be. I had promised her one of my dresses for when I passed."

But it was. The Amiratus knew it was, and within minutes, tears welled in her eyes. Johanna had gone through so much, carried so much upon her shoulders. And though Esfir knew that the Vuiller had reached her rightful peace in the Skies, it made it no less painful to have lost yet another dear Balianese friend.

Spoiler

I loved Johanna so much and I LOVE YOU TARA!!! Thank you for having let me be part of her story <3

 

[Spellblades 749]

Warrin Kolbeck watches as another one of his old friends appears to him in his tormentful afterlife, still unsure if she's real or not. Still, he felt obligated to say something, anything, "I'm so sorry, Johanna." is all he could muster before turning his back and continuing his walk through his purgatory.

[TheOnlyTub 550]

 

For a long time after her body grew cold did the man sit beside the fire still. Dead in his arms and undead surrounding him, he knew the art well, yet it troubled him so.

His pallid hands did carry her before a table which many profanities had been splayed out before, though this was not one of them.
Each cut made with care, lacerating her cold skin with a single finger enwreathed in dark. The final slit across her neck brought the man into a silence most profound.
With an indifferent countenance he looked over the body for a final time.
"Take her to Lotharia."
And then for a long time after her body was gone did Fionn sit, alone.

And in the absence of the clamor of undeath and in a world without her did finally the necromancer reflect on the humanity he had lost.

Though not for long

[Dair 82]

Their room in the Vuiller house was dimly lit by a candle, it's light softly flickering against the surrounding walls. Jean stood still, their daughter Lilithine wrapped in the crook of one arm. The room was untouched, yet something dear had departed, and he felt it in his bones.

Alongside the items left behind by Johanna, ones that he knew too well, lay a note, folded with care. No ceremony, no farewell spoken aloud. Just ink, parchment, and the unbearable finality of silence. His eyes fell to the line she had written last:

"Thank you for being the love of my life."

 

He lowered himself into the chair they had once shared by the window, where light would pour in on late mornings. Lilithine stirred in his arms, oblivious to the void left behind.

 

"You promised me twenty more years." Jean whispered, his voice frayed with grief. "We swore it like fools, as though the world would bow to love."

 

He cradled their daughter closer. She had Johanna's eyes, the same spark, the same soft defiance. A blessing and a wound all at once.

 

"You were the light in this house, Johanna. Without you, the hearth goes cold. But I will carry your light for her... I must."

 

The candle sputtered, casting one last flicker across the room.

 

"Rest now, my heart. Wherever you've gone, may it be gentle. And wait for me, as I will walk the rest of this road with your name in every step."

[MailC3p 2403]

Spoiler

Johanna is dead? Nooo, I liked CRPing you in Balian the most during the war

 

[SmartScout 392]

The elder Vuiller would hear the news and hold back a sob, as he'd return to his room, letting out cries of pain as he'd hit the bed and walls "My children, all my children...God...why must I outlive them...see them fall away...All I have loved...Oh Jo..." he'd mutter to himself between sobs as he'd take to bed, the old Duke grown yet more reclusive as he ponders his faults, the ravages of time, and the cruelty of God's fate, calling for a bottle of his own.

 

Spoiler

Thank you so much for playing Jo! Was an absolute joy! Glad you came back to the server, and best of luck going forward!

 

[WhimsicalOwl 268]

Edith feels almost numb, when the letter is finally passed around to her. It wasn't hard to assume what this was. A feeling all too familiar, though one she had not felt in years.

 

She had just seen her recently. She had attended Edith's wedding. They chatted in the square of Alba eventually afterwards.

 

"I promise Auntie, you'll be remembered. Wherever you are, may it be filled with peace."

 

Much like all those years ago, her grief would be silent. 

Spoiler

Not Jo T-T. She was such a fun character to interact with, sad to see her go.

 

[cadazio 2105]

Coarse coughs into a bloodied napkin. He had smoked from eleven to nineteen, unsupervised as the boy had been. A foul grip on his torso threatened to burst his lungs right open, posture held upright by a stick. Of all the things that kept him stood, that cane fell short of she.

 

Trembling hands over a crumpled parchment. The greatest years of his youth slipped away grain by grain from his nervy grip, down and to the shore at his feet. They fell as he did, down stairs and onto clinic floors. But she, like the tide, washed it all away into the sea.

 

Heavy eyes toward a cloudy sky. His whole body had felt a part of it; of the clouds and the breeze, of the sun and the cold tiles of the rooftop. Like many, they ought’ve been his last moments. But swift like the wind, she had gone. It was until now that he understood her inaction.
 

Selfishly did he only remember these, and not the rest. They hadn’t been the pretty things, nor the happy things, but rarely had any of it. She had been present in them as much as he had.

Though ego had kept him from voicing it, he had always held the same respect for her, even as she built a high pedestal for him to stand on. To both their follies, all that she had turned her head up in appraisal made a distance too far for him to reach and raise her up along with. It was a silent regret upon that plinth, to realize he was truly the last. 

[xDisarray 552]

Aurellius leaned over the edge of the wall of Lotharia once he heard the news. The quiet in the warm, hot desert air. The only thing that could be heard is the wind blowing. It blew through his long, curly, starting to grey hair.

 

He stared off into the distance, not sure how to feel. He was officially now the last one standing out of almost all of his friends. Rylee, Mons, Esta, and now Johanna is added to the very long list of friends he had lost. It was literally the other day where Aurellius recalled, “You can net pass before I do…” - “Do net worry, I promise”

 

“You promised me you’d outlive me.” Aurellius had said this aloud as if she were standing in front of him.

“Now who do I go to about my problems” His fists now clenched, he punched the sandstone wall before him, not caring what damage it would do. 

He felt so empty, all those who helped him grow into the person he was now are all gone.

 

Perhaps it was time to pick up a bottle…

 

Spoiler

I am appalled you decided to PK 😭 how could you!!

 

Seriously though, it saddens me to see aurellius be the last one standing, it’s also ironic with how aurellius is the last one standing with how often he got himself into situations he should’ve died…. 

 

this is tragic, she will be missed

 

 

[Luka_Rei 66]

Theo sat in silence in his room, his face a mess of red and tears. It was as though his heart had the final nail driven into it. She was everything, his caretaker, his mentor, his friend. He could still recall the grip of her hand on his when he was a boy, guiding him and pulling him from trouble. The eldest de Lyons couldn't help, but recall every moment they'd shared. Though not by blood, the woman he saw as his second mother was gone, was dead. Johanna Vuiller had finally passed.

 

With sluggish and heavy body, Theo rose to his feet and ambled over to his kitchen cabinet. Two glasses of wine would be poured and the Knight would raise his high. "A final drink, Dona Johanna?" He uttered weakly to open air.

[Yeetboy0206 1574]

Estevot Heymor almost cried. One of his oldest and dearest friends had entered the Skies well before they should’ve. He thought of all the people she just left behind, and decided that it didn’t matter how she got here. He’d welcome Johanna with open arms.

 

“Hey Jo. I missed you. I’m sorry we had to meet again so soon.”

[Fawnytheturtle 865]

As the news reached Ruby, she sighs sadly she was still grieving herself over her father and sister, such sadness in her heart for her friend Lucien and family to lose someone. "I wish I had a candle, hm" she wasn't sure what to do, so she grabs her new lute and sat down playing a soft tune, hoping that would be enough.

[Navigator 4260]

Spoiler

 

 

Laurence had always been an emotional boy. Always. He smiled big smiles, he sobbed big sobs, felt rage as thoroughly as he did joy. It was part of him, to be so emotional, to express himself in such a way. His mother had always told him to be so. She had always encouraged him to be so. The world was his oyster, those around him participants of the Laurence Show. When he excitedly read the letter over Lucien's shoulder, there was no big smile, there were no stream of tears, there was no flame of rage or wilted rose of sadness.

 

There was silence. There was stillness.

 

The letter was wrong, right? No - surely it was. And for the first day, irregardless of what his siblings, his father, their friends said, the boy would not accept that his mother was gone. No. She was the strongest woman he knew, the lighthouse at the coast, the beacon in the dark. Irregardless of how many times she tossed him in the water, irregardless of how many times she ruffled his perfectly braided hair, his mother was always there. An anchor for him to fall back to.

 

He couldn't bring to eat after the second day, and for a week, he had to be forced to eat. Realisation dawned, slowly, and it was only on the fifth day that, for the first time, Laurence cried. His sobs reverberated through the Vuiller house, and his hands clutched weakly at the scruff of his shirt, curled up in his bed, the pillow battling against the stream of tears. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't bear it. He didn't understand this new feeling, this all too powerful emotion that wracked him in a way that he was completely alien to. Such an emotional boy, a boy that felt things so strongly, yet he could not identify what this was. Was it anger? Was it sadness? Was it hatred? Grief was a word all too strange to the young Vuiller. He hadn't experienced yet, and the first time he did, it was his own mother.

 

He wouldn't come out of his room for another two days. The only words that he dared utter, a broken request from a voice deepened by sadness and roughed by loss, a sad affair of desperation and grief. . .

 

"Come back to me, mama. . . please. . ."

[Monty Cobra 921]

Lucien ran. Crumpled missive clutched in shaking white fist, pockets full of clanking, half-touched wine bottles, eyes blown wide and frantic, he ran through desert; then through jungle; then through sandy beach, until the cold shock of water greeted him.

 

But the Amathine was empty. Lucien stood alone in the gentle waves. He turned left and right, tears welling in his eyes as he searched for her—hoping desperately, naively, that she might still be here... "Mama," sobbed the young man, and the sob rose to a wail that echoed the walls of the ruins. "Please!"

 

He collapsed to his knees in the water. That very water where she had guided him in as a child, where she had cupped water in her hands to cascade over his downy hair, that water she had thrown him into and then laughed and laughed, that beautiful sound—a sound he would never hear again. She had departed this place, and he was still here... still the same fearful, shy little boy who had always stuck to his mother's side like glue.

 

She'd left and he remained, but this time she had gone somewhere he could not follow her—not like Lemon Hill, nor Reinmar, not the nights spent faithfully at her side, cleaning the shattered glass and making sure she had a blanket to keep her warm. This place she had gone was permanent and untouchable, and the concept filled him with a cold horror that seeped into his bones. When had he ever been unable to follow her?

 

Lucien's wails rang through the Amathine, sobs like the normally reserved man had never sobbed—the grief of one who would never again feel the embrace of a mother , nor hear her laugh, nor see her smile. His shaking hands clasped as he knelt in the water. A prayer tumbled from his lips, one that would not cease for days to come—one that would be etched into his heart for the rest of his life.

 

"Don't leave me alone, please. Please. Don't leave me alone."

 

Spoiler

Immeasurably sad that we lost Jo... she was like Miss LOTC to me. Thanks so much for the journey with her, from being my very first character's friend to giving me the honor of playing her son. Truly an unforgettable character <3