Magnus Keppler
Son of Kymopoleia
| “ | Cross my heart, hope to die; to my lover, I'd never lie. | ” |
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Name: Magnus Keppler Age: 18 God Parent: Kymopoleia |
Face Claim: Nico Tortorella Weapons: Scythe hidden in a bronze compass Mortal Parent: Casper Heinason (né Keppler) |
- Personality
After being restricted for so long, Magnus was bound to snap at some time, specially considering his curious, adventurous and risk-taking nature. He's the type of person that gets easily bored with routines, and actively seeks for a new thrill or high to surpass the one before and try to fill up a his bottomless void. He seems to have the thought that after being deprived of so many behaviours and attitudes and being miserable and full of resent because of it, suddenly doing all these 'prohibited' things will bring him true happiness. He could easily be considered a hedonist. He seeks pleasure in sex, drugs, alcohol, and manipulating people, for entertainment, but also in the little things in life, such as stargazing, being out on the sea, the smell of wet earth, and walking around in silence with someone he appreciates.
Furthermore, Magnus has a whole other side of him that not many people get to see of him. Deep inside, he's a mushy mess that now believes in true love but is, however, resigned to finding that special someone due to his past. He enjoys studying people and pressing their buttons, just for the hell of it. Once he feels comfortable around others, he'll get more and more touchy, playful, critic, sarcastic, and shed a light on his usually dark sense of humour. Every now and then, he'll get in his philosophical mood, when he'll be unusually deep and insightful, a trait which he adopted from Søren, or go down a rabbit hole to his repressed memories and be reminded of his unresolved family issues and how, no matter how hard he tried, he ended up being a disappointment to his whole family and friends.
- History
The young Casper Keppler was by no means a man of class. At least not for the first years of his life. Born and raised in the working class of Denmark in the late 18th century, Casper’s family was a hard-working one that never complained and only worked harder when things got tough, in the hopes that that would somehow help their precarious situation someday. Casper, whilst grateful for the life lesson, wasn’t as much of a conformist. He figured that if you put hard work into something and it didn’t work out, then your effort wasn’t the problem but rather what it was you were doing.
With that in mind, he mind knew he couldn’t keep up his family’s shoemaking profession. He’d have to learn how to do something else.
Luckily, an opportunity struck at the right moment when Captain Aksel Heinason, from the direct lineage of Captain Magnus Heinason the first entered their modest establishment. His renowned ancestor had been perhaps the most notable privateer of Denmark-Norway, known for bringing great treasures from beyond the seas to the Danish crown. Casper didn’t know much about the elite at the age of 14, but he had an affinity for reading whatever he could put his hands on, specially if it was about history. The current Captain Heinason wasn’t nearly as notorious, save for having a penchant for footwear. It was said that he’d never owned a pair for over half a year, growing bored of Italian designs too soon and finding English brogues too uncomfortable after a few wears; a scandalous thing, really, given the time and the fact that he wasn’t precisely nobility, really. Many viewed him as a brat rather than a high-ranking navy official. The man looked around the small workshop upon entering, rather unimpressed.
Perhaps the Kepplers weren’t wealthy, but they were known for being among the best shoemakers in the ever-growing city of Copenhagen, so the family was used to seeing disappointed faces when new customers saw the modesty of their establishment. It had been a quiet day, so Casper’s parents had gone out to buy the food for the day to the market and had left the young boy alone to guard keep the workshop.
The captain was about to leave when an eager Casper stopped him, and the man, endeared by the boy’s naïveté, decided to entertain the place for a few more minutes. The young Casper did everything he could to convince the man to buy a pair shoes from then, just as he’d been taught, and the captain agreed on two conditions: one, that he’d make a custom order, and two, that the shoes were to be made exclusively by Casper.
Heinason’s shoe order was nothing close to simple, and in fact, it required materials that needed to be imported to meet his standards of quality, but blinded by the very handsome reward the man had promised, Casper shook hands on it, effectively calling it a deal.
Casper spent most of the following month’s work time on making the captain’s extravagant order. He had to dye leather, carve wood, and glue the shoes together with natural concoctions. His parents insisted on helping him, partly afraid that their son would botch his first pair of shoes made entirely by himself, but he always refused, claiming that a deal was a deal, regardless of Heinason’s unknown motives behind the request.
The time came to deliver the pair, and Heinason entered the small workshop once again, though this time around with a hefty bag of coins in hand. He tried them on, and never had a man been so delighted with the perfect fit of such an accessory and the exquisiteness of it.
He adored his new shoes to such a degree, that besides paying the family in a modicum of excess, he requested for the boy to come live under his roof and pay him on a monthly basis to become his personal shoemaker. The family, honoured by such an offer, agreed immediately despite Casper’s reservations.
Truth to be told, Heinason and his wife had been trying to have children for years to no result, and Aksel couldn’t bare to be the end of the prestigious family name. He’d wanted a son to be his heir, but clearly his attempts had been anything but fructiferous. Besides, the captain had always had a fatherly instinct that he couldn’t easily ignore, and somehow, having a boy working for him at home seemed like the closest thing he’d ever have to a son.
The transition was a comfortable one, to say the least. Even though Casper did miss his parents dearly, he definitely liked that new life much better. Every day there was plenty of food on his plate, a warm bed, and a room bigger than his parents’ workshop dedicated merely for him to use to produce Heinason’s caprices.
After the first few weeks, Casper felt more comfortable around his patron and his wife and they too got used to the teen’s presence in their household, to the point where they’d even have him sit with them during dinner. Casper and Heinason got along marvellously. Heinason loved talking and sharing his anecdotes and the young boy always loved hearing about the captain’s sea adventures on the behalf of Denmark.
Saskia, Heinason’s wife, didn’t connect with the boy on such a personal level, but she grew fond of him anyways. Whenever Heinason wasn’t at home, Saskia would take advantage of the situation to learn more about Casper, but she found out he was rather reserved when it came to personal topics. His lack of etiquette or any proper academic guidance endeared her, and she mostly spent her time without much to do anyways, so she took it as a personal challenge to properly educate him.
He, she learned, was quick to learn, and absorbed everything as a sponge would, so within the year he was mostly caught up with how he, as a symbolic son of house Heinason was supposed to behave during events, and the most important topic of subjects relevant to him, such as naval warfare, politics, trade, and ship equipment. It also helped that whenever Heinason was at home, his stories would help reaffirm his learning.
Casper had to also stick to his part of the deal, obviously, and he had to meet the quota of manufacturing one pair of outstanding shoes for Heinason per month, but it soon became clear to anyone that that was more of an excuse to keep him at home. Casper was allowed to visit his parents occasionally, but as miles in between relationships do, their bond deteriorated starkly.
It wasn’t until he turned 18 and became legal of age that Heinason actually took him in as an actual apprentice, and in true spirit of a father, he taught Casper everything he knew and how he’d become successful in what he did as a privateer. All his secrets, and shortcuts, and everything in between. Whenever Heinason was called to serve on duty, he’d bring Casper alongside him, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that Casper became the best at what they did and slowly started ranking higher and higher in positions of authority until he became second-in-command to Heinason.
The duo had become so close that Heinason even managed to pull enough strings so that Casper could legally change his name to Casper Heinason. They were truly happy doing what they did, despite the occasional arguments over tough decisions they had to make, but at the end of the day the love they’d developed for one another was much bigger than that.
Things didn’t really take a wrong turn until the ship had a run-in with some pirates who attempted to hijack the ship and steal all of the treasures they’d gotten for the crown during that particular mission. Both ships engaged in a brutal battle that ended up with Heinason’s death. The crew managed to escape mostly unscathed and with their ship mostly full of their loot, but losing the captain was the biggest hit they could take; especially for Casper. Wistfully, he noticed, that Heinason was wearing the exact same pair of shoes which he’d first made for him, back when he lived with is biological parents, over ten years ago. He’d kept them throughout all those years.
Seeing as he was second-in-command, though, he was called to be the new captain, at the very young age of 26. He grieved for his pseudo-father more than he’d ever grieved for anyone else before, but that same event caused him to develop a deep, heart-wrenching hatred towards pirated; making an oath to himself and his country that he’d rid the seas of such parasites if it was the last thing he did.
He led the privateer crew strictly and sternly, with a firm hand that made it clear who was in command. This led to a very prosperous year in their area of work. Whenever he had to go back to Copenhagen, he’d always stay with Saskia; not that he didn’t have enough money to buy his own estate, but rather both to make company to the hurting widow and because he didn’t have any family of his own to live separately.
That was, however, bound to change. Coming back home his consequent mission to England, there was a freak storm all over the North Sea; waves crashing violently against the helm of the ship, ocean roiling with creatures beneath, and thunder cracking like a whip against the night sky. They’d been attacked by pirates again that same day, and although there hadn’t been any casualties, this time, they had been left with their coffers mostly empty, and Casper, in the midst of the despair had turned is attentions to the bottles in the liquor cabin on his quarters.
The water crashed into the deck, and the wind seemed to slap the huge sails from just about every direction. All of the crew was safely hidden beneath the deck, but Casper’s drunken stupor led him out of his quarters and into the outside, right in the middle or the raging storm. He cursed at everything, smashing the decanter in his hand into the wooden floors and praying that if anything were to happen out of this violent storm, then that it should be to wreck all of the pirates’ ships strewn across the ocean.
Kymopoleia’s ears perked up at said prayer, unsure whether it as a request or a challenge. She lowered herself into the deck of the ship and watched the young man closely. So much pain, so much rage, so much passion.
Kymopoleia loved it.
Casper, upon taking notice of her, was understandably taken aback, blaming whatever he was seeing on the alcohol, until her lips were on his, his hands were on her hips, and both their wet bodies collided with one another, finishing what they started over at the captain’s cabin.
Upon waking up the next morning with a splitting headache and an empty bed beneath him, he had no logical explaining for what had happened save for that he surely must have been imagining things and nothing had ever really happened. Maybe it had all been a dream. So why was it that his floor was all wet, then?
The mission ended unsuccessfully, and Casper took some time off to recover from his breakdown. He then resumed, until about four months after that unexplainable evening, he came back into the ship after a temporary stop on the way back to Copenhagen from Iceland, and found a sleeping baby in his cabin with a small note sticking out of its wrap.
The note explained everything to Casper, from the veracity of what he knew to be called as Greek mythology, to her identity and not having wanted to become pregnant out of their night together, to explaining that the baby boy’s life would be full of hardships for the mere fact of him being born a demigod.
A small bronze compass came along with the letter, and he saved both objects in his private drawer. He didn’t know what to make of it. While he was mostly skeptic about the whole situation, it also seemed to connect a lot of dots together. If it hadn’t been a goddess, then who could have possibly written a letter mentioning their night together if he hadn’t told anyone about it?
He named the baby Magnus, after the first Heinason that had become a captain in honour to his late symbolic father’s heritage. Luckily, the ship was already on the way back to Copenhagen, so as soon as he arrived, he dropped to baby off to Saskia and asked to take care of him. Having no real way of explaining the whole situation to the middle-aged woman, he simply begged her to do the same thing with the baby as she’d once done with him. Inevitably, that thought had thawed her reservations, and she ended up agreeing.
As was expected of him as a captain of a privateering ship, he wasn’t very much at home, despite his best efforts of trying to spend as much time as possible next to his newborn son. Whenever he was home, however, he’d teach everything everything he knew to Magnus, just as Heinason had done with him only a decade back. At least he had the comfort of knowing that he would be in good hands and would be raised to be well-educated by a respectable house in Copenhagen.
Since Heinason had died, however, Saskia had become close friends with Anne, of house Kierkegaard, wife to Mikael Kierkegaard who came from old money and was a very religious man. Michael and Anne had just gotten married and Anne was pregnant back then, so Saskia had supported her throughout her pregnancy and Anne had offered her company and friendship to the widow, despite their age gap.
By the time that she’d taken in Magnus, Anne’s twins Søren and Liva were only about four months old. Anne, delighted by the coincidence, insisted on having the children meet, and ever since then, the Kierkegaard and Heinason children started what would later on become a beautiful friendship.
Time fled by and Magnus had a happy childhood. Saskia raised him alongside the help, and he had access to great tutors and literature. Given the tight relationship they’d developed with house Kierkegaard, the kids would see each other once a week at the very least. Magnus was the carefree and mischievous one, Søren was the stubborn one that would assume leadership, and Liva was the obedient and prudent one that would mediate between the two boys whenever they fought, which was a common occurrence.
Both Saskia and Anne agreed that Magnus and Liva made a fantastic pair and settled into the unspoken agreement that the two were to marry each other when they grew up. This silent decision translated into Saskia subconsciously pushing Magnus closer to Liva as they grew up together and priming the kids’ minds into believing that they were perfect for one another. To be fair, in most aspects, they really were.
It was around the time that Magnus turned thirteen, that Casper’s right leg got injured and he was forced to take a year-long rest. During that year, a lot of things happened in Magnus’s life. For one, he greatly strengthened what was a decent father-and-son relationship at best. Casper took advantage of said time to be more intensive in his naval lessons for his son, and he told his high-seas stories to Magnus, who also found them enthralling.
Within that same year, Casper found love in the form of a young maiden named Krista at a banquet, and they married shortly afterwards. Magnus was happy about having his father finding a partner, but he was worried about having to move away from Saskia. Fortunately for him, both Krista and Casper decided not to leave the woman alone in that huge house of hers and instead moved in with her and Magnus.
This meant that he would still be seeing the Kierkegaards regularly, and he was ecstatic about it, particularly because he’d started puberty and was starting to see Liva in a new light. Without them knowing, they received help from their meddlesome parents so that Liva and Magnus found themselves alone in several occasions.
It was after one of his encounters with Liva that he was walking back to the Heinason residence when he encountered a fire-breathing horse. Horrified by the hideous, strange creature, Magnus tried to make a run for it, but the horse galloped quickly and the fire that emanated from its body had a long range to scorch him. Having been told by his father to always carry the compass he’d gifted him for his 10th birthday because one day it would come in handy if he ever got lost and he needed to find his way back home as quickly as possible, Magnus pulled the artefact from his coat pocket and inspected it. He noticed upon that closer look, that it wasn’t an ordinary compass. The needle didn’t seem to be working properly and upon fidgeting with it, he was surprised to see that the object soon became a scythe in his hands.
His brain didn’t have enough time to process what had just happened but the monster was hot on his heels and he didn’t have another choice left but to move sideways, let the horse pass through him due to its greater momentum, and slash the edge of the weapon along the beast’s belly. The boy was left there, perplexed, as he saw the animal becoming golden dust instead of it bleeding to death. Covered in said specks of dust, he walked back home, scythe in hand and rather traumatised from the whole ordeal. He tried fidgeting with the weapon to see if he could bring it back to being a compass, and he managed to do it, but was too distracted to really notice what he’d done in the first place. He put the small object back into his coat pocket, wide-eyed and confused, and tried to forget everything about it.
He never said a thing about it.
It took Magnus a whole lot of time for him to come to terms with his attraction for Liva and how to come to terms with it, until one day, when he was almost 15, he mustered enough courage to kiss her.
The girl replied positively and that started a series of events which at the time both believed to be romance, but was actually more of sheer curiosity and teenage discovery than anything else. Neither Saskia nor Anne knew anything about this, but they had their fair amount of suspicions, and they couldn’t be happier. At least if the pair was to marry in the future, they would genuinely love one another and be happy if that was the case. Very few had that privilege in arranged marriages.
His relationship with Liva only seemed to strengthen as the months went by. Despite the Kierkegaard family being a faithful Christian family, the desire for one another eventually became too strong and by the time the young couple was 17, they’d already had intercourse. After that, Magnus noticed that was missing for him, though. He couldn’t bring himself to feel for Liva with such an intensity as she did with him. Their kisses were full of passion, but there was seldom any emotion behind his lips.
He’d been thinking all along that what they needed was to be intimate to really surrender all of their inhibitions and give themselves to one another, but that also proved to be wrong. He was attracted to the girl, that was for sure. Almost no one managed to get him feeling in such a way as she did, so then what could possibly be missing?
The answer came rather soon to him. After being intimate, Liva had decided to take some space. Whether it was out of shame, modesty, or her having similar reservations to his, he knew not, but he decided that it would be probably good for them.
During this time, however, he noticed how dependent he was on Liva to have a good time and he quickly grew lonely. So, he took the advantage to instead spend time with Søren, who he was still friends with, but had unfrequented in favour of her twin sister. Perhaps he could also help Magnus with some insight on Liva’s situation with their relationship, which he was sure that Søren knew of by now.
Spending time with him was easy. The conversation flowed naturally, they had complete trust in each other, and it was nice to reconnect and bond in such a seemingness way despite not spending much time together in a while. Søren continued bing the same headstrong individual, but now he wasn’t stubborn out of caprice, rather of conviction, principle, and passion for what he knew was right, and that, Magnus thought to be quite admirable.
Liva seemed to be avoiding him for not only days, but weeks, but somehow Magnus didn’t seem to mind too much so long as he got to be next to Søren. It wasn’t until one night he had a dream about being intimate by the other boy that he realised what was actually happening. To be fair, he’d had his fair share of dreams in which Liva had been the object of Magnus’s desires, and somehow that had been confirmation that he genuinely felt aroused by her. So why was he having similar thoughts about her brother? And why did he suddenly favour spending time with him over her?
All of these thoughts came to be too confusing and the guilt riddled him to the point of developing a crippling anxiety. To cope with this, he’d either take clandestine hits to his father’s pipe, or raid the family’s liquor cabinet, only taking sips from each of the many spirits to avoid any suspicions. He knew he would be seen as a perversion if anyone else even saw a glimpse of what his thoughts had been lately.
Magnus, however, had been seeing signs from Søren that hinted that he, too, was probably interested in taking the relationship further. The eyes his eyes would gleam whenever Magnus laughed. Or how he’d turn to another side and avoid his gaze whenever he complimented him. How he felt that absolute sense of calm and trust whenever he was around. Not even Liva knew of his most personal goals and thoughts and Søren did. The only two things he didn’t know were that Magnus had become absolutely infatuated with him, and that he’d been attacked by unexplainable monsters throughout his past three years.
It wasn’t until Magnus’s 18th birthday that Liva decided to reach out again. She paid him a visit and in between regretful sobs she explained that she was sorry for losing touch for so long, and that having slept together had been a grave mistake, but that she’d reconciled with her thoughts and emotions and was ready to continue their relationship. He was still greatly attracted to her and his care for was about the same he did for his own family and Søren but it was obvious to him by that point that he didn’t feel, and hadn’t ever felt for Liva the way he did for her brother.
However, much to Magnus’s surprise, Liva had talked about her relationship with her parents and they, in turn, had approved of it, and in fact were ready to start on the wedding’s preparations. It was all too much and all too quick, but Magnus didn’t know what to say, so he simply feigned excitement. It couldn’t possibly be that bad, could it? He genuinely liked Liva as a person, and she was as pretty as girls ever got, so why not just repress his perversion and marry her? He doubted he’d be truly unhappy with that as a result.
And so, in the end, he agreed. Since that weddings weren’t so much of a grand celebratory event as a formalisation and ceremony, the whole thing was planned within two months. Given that they were now engaged, the girl didn’t have as big a moral conflict with consummating her alleged love with her fiancé, so they resumed with the activity whenever they felt like it was needed.
All of this pressure didn’t help Magnus’s already-fraying nerves, so his coping methods only worsened. By the time it was the day of the wedding, he'd grown so anxious and so miserable with himself, that he decided this couldn't possibly be the way he was going to live for the rest of his life. He knew he couldn’t live with himself if he was in love with someone and had willingly decided to marry someone else. Besides the fact that it was unethical, he was aware that it would lead to a life full of regrets.
His timing, obviously, couldn’t be worse, and he’d been drinking all throughout the morning of the fateful day. With liquid courage in his veins, he waited for his soon-to-be brother-in-law to give him a few final words of encouragement before he was to marry Liva, but instead of letting Søren finish his speech, the son of Kymopoleia threw himself over the other and buried his lips against Søren’s.
The male twin, horrified, pushed the demigod off him, and started yelling in outrage, but the drunk Magnus still believed both boys were in love so he went ahead and exposed all of his hidden feelings for Søren, saying how marrying his sister would be a mistake when the two of them were in love.
Judging from Søren’s expression, it was clear that Magnus had read the signals wrong. Or rather, there had never been really been any signals, but he’d been blinded by his limerence and he’d searched for clues where there weren’t any.
The twin, just in case his point hadn’t been made clear by his reaction, went ahead to be very forward about how he had absolutely no feelings for Magnus, and how he now wouldn’t let her sister marry a man with such a perverted mind. Magnus tried stopping him, but it was of no use. Søren stormed out of the room, and the demigod knew right then and there that his life as he knew it had come to an end.
Unsure about what he was supposed to do, he decided to follow through with the wedding. It had been a mistake telling everything to Søren, but being that they were best friends, he’d surely stay silent about the whole thing. Well, he was wrong. By the time he finished preparing and exited to meet his future wife at the altar, everyone had already gone.
It had been Casper, surely, because he was the only one standing there. Søren had told him and everyone else absolutely everything that had just happened moments ago. Casper, understanding that as a respected high-ranking official that worked directly for the crown of Denmark he couldn’t have a son who displayed such twisted perversions, immediately disowned him, stripping him from his coveted last name and kicking him out of their house. He wouldn’t be his son in any sense of the word. Not anymore.
There really wasn’t anything that Magnus could do about it, so he simply left with what he had on and his precious bronze compass. He debated on pawning it, but decided against it. It had way too much emotional value for him. With all of his knowledge about boats and his high education, however, it wasn’t too hard finding a way to get by.
He spent his time near the port, helping arriving ships with anything they needed help with, whether it may be tying knots to secure docking, or carrying cargo, in exchange for some lose change.
It was this way that he came across a small band of pirates in disguise. They posed as foreign traders, but really only came over to Copenhagen as a safe haven for a few weeks in between raids to lay low. It was during one of these breaks that Magnus befriended the second-in-command, a reckless Englishwoman by the name of Delilah. He met her by offering to help their small, nondescript ship dock, and upon agreeing, they quickly became friends. The ship was a schooner called Havnmonsteret , and it was a sailing ship that wasn’t designed for piracy, but he supposed that it helped put up the façade they were looking for.
Delilah invited him over to the tavern where the band would be celebrating the end of their most recent conquest, where they ended up talking throughout the night and she noticed that the boy had indeed a very vast knowledge about the dead and everything related. What peaked her interest the most though, was his inside information on privateering and the officials’ names and weaknesses. They could use the boy and exploit all that information, so she decided to give him a try and take him in with the crew.
Magnus, without really anything to lose and the reassurance that he’d have food to eat without having to actively work for it, agreed without much thought. To start, he’d be in a trial period, but that quickly came to an end when he proved his worth.
He spent several months with the crew, and finally, he felt right. Like he belonged somewhere where he was actually supposed to be. It was funny to him how he seemed to be enjoying his life more now that he was with these misfits as opposed to when he was living in his house with all the commodities possible. What he noticed was that he could be himself with them and they didn’t care about it. In fact, they liked him for himself and he didn’t feel the need to follow pre-set rules and pretend to be someone he wasn’t.
He went under the name of Magnus Keppler, which is what would have been his biological name anyways, had his father not been adopted by house Heinason.
He didn’t really tell the crew who he really was, but Delilah had her suspicions anyways. She didn’t know why he’d possibly escaped his home if that were the case but never really questioned him.
He traveled with them to remote places and islands, helping them with what he could and as best as he could, which was surprisingly really well. Who’d have thought, that the son of a high-ranking, pirate-hating privateer would end up being a pirate himself?
The past came back to bite him in the arse when the crew went to pillage the Faroe Islands. They reached their goal and were on the way back to Copenhagen, when they encountered another ship. A larger, better ship, that according to its waving flags, was the crown’s property.
And they, being pirates, were sure to meet their demise, because upon giving a closer look, the crew noticed that the captain of the other ship was none other than the infamous Casper Heinason, the Pirate Slayer.
Magnus’s eyes inevitably widened, in realisation of the implications. A fight between the two vessels was imminent, and this meant that he’d not only have to see his father again, but to go against him as well. The fight never came though.
As the two ships shortened the distance between them to nothing, Magnus caught his father’s eyes, and recognition flashed in between them immediately. Casper stopped right in his place, speechless, but Magnus couldn’t hold it on. The skies darkened.
He’d left his bride stranded at the altar, disappointed his father, ended the Heinason privateer dynasty, and damaged the family bond with house Kierkegaard. Just because he had been cursed with loving someone who he wasn’t supposed to love.
Ironic, how after spending so much time feeling incapable of emotion and genuine affection, it turned out to be that love would be the reason for his downfall. He felt so powerless. Felt so much despair by seeing hype man who had once loved him but then estranged and disowned him. Felt so much pain, so much rage, so much passion.
Kymopoleia loved it.
Not to see her son in pain, but rather how those emotions that had always seemed to both attract her and fuel her, seemed to be now working and manifesting his powers. Too distracted by what was to come, a large storm had started stirring above them.
Magnus started crying. Cried until his eyes were left raw and lightning lit up the night sky. Screamed at the top of his lungs until his throat burned, and the winds picked up chaotically, not caring about what anyone would think about him anymore. Let them see. Kicked his feet against the hard corners of the schooner, seemingly possessed until his toenails bled and the water came pouring into the pirates’ ship.
A victim to his own emotions and powers, Magnus inevitably fell prey to the wind and water badgering the boat; tried breaking the surface for air to no avail. The crew tried escaping the freak storm and the royal ship, but both were hot on their tail and the water only kept rushing inside it until it all came down underwater. Magnus could only bring his eyes up at the sky, seeing slowly as the moon seemed to get blurrier and farther away from him by the second.
He thought about how different things could have been, but weren’t. How he could’ve gotten married. Been a captain. Brought honour to the family that had once adopted a foreign kin to its own. But no. He never got the chance to.
The last thing he saw where the first rays of sunlight peeking through the horizon in the distance. And as things would have it, it was at that exact moment that Liva woke up from her troubled sleep and ran towards a restroom to throw up; the first of what would be several upcoming morning sicknesses. One life being lost in the middle of the ocean, and another blossoming to life within the womb of the woman with whom Magnus had once believed to be in love with.
Liva became an outcast. As a single mother of the high class in 19th century Denmark, she was seen with horrified gazes and judgemental looks. She never married and raised the little Jana all by herself.
Casper managed to escape the freak storm with his much better ship, but he became scarred for life by the mere sight of his son for the last time as a pirate before seeing with his own eyes how the ocean swallowed his offspring.
Søren became a philosopher, and he’d later come to be known as the father of existentialism. Greatly influenced by his family’s heavy reliance on christianity, he fulfilled his father’s last wish of becoming a pastor and wrote several works that also dealt with religious issues. He never forgot Magnus, who’d once been his best friend, but he also resented him greatly for leaving his sister pregnant and promising to marry her when he was so deeply riddled with perversion.
Magnus, however, hadn’t really succumbed to the ocean. Kymopoleia pitied her son for the whole situation and his unrequited love. She also found the idea of her son dying by his own hands without him knowing so quite ridiculous. And so, she decided to instead put him to a deep sleep and preserve him there, in the insides of the Havnmonsteret. During his sleep, she sent him a dream explaining that if anyone were to bring him out, he’d continue living and that he should travel to America, where there was a camp where he’d be safe, but until then (and if that ever happened), there wasn’t much else she could do without directly interfering with him.
April 26th, 2020
Antique Sailboat Found in American Expedition Near Denmark: A Mystery
Nathan Cavendish, The Daily Post
It was on the morning of April 25th that a group of American scientists and expeditionists found an almost-intact sailboat, which according to historians, seems to come from the early 19th century. Experts attribute the outstanding lack of deterioration of the schooner on the level of salinity of the Baltic Sea, which they say, was key in preserving the vessel and the artefacts with such fidelity.
Allegedly, the body of a young man in between the estimated ages of 17-20 was also found among the remains, which displayed a mesmerising lack of decay. Several other human remains were found as well, but the degree of decay they displayed was in accordance to the rest of the ship’s. Many think that it is just a coincidence and that the mysterious young man drowned only recently and was swept over to the ship, but the remains of his clothing hinted otherwise.
Studies where going to be made to determine all of this missing information, but both the corpse and a compass that was found alongside the ship were supposedly stolen overnight. While some believe that it must have been mercenaries that stole the 19th century naval instrument of a relic, most scientists have no clue on why stealing a lifeless body would have been beneficial, other than postmortem organ harvesting and illegal trade. Investigations are being made at this very moment, but so far both are unaccounted for. The Daily Post will stay updated on the subject and give more information regarding this mystery as it comes out.
Until then, it seems like we’ve encountered a ghost story.
Note: Just to make sure it's explicit, Magnus was the body found in the sea, and the sailboat was the Havnmonsteret. He woke up in the middle of the night and escaped, taking his compass along with him as he made a run for it and then went over to Camp-Half Blood as Kymopoleia had instructed in his dream.