Helen Magnus

Character Information
Name: Doctor Helen Magnus
Fandom: Sanctuary
PB: Amanda Tapping
Age: 157 years old, does not look a day over 35
Journal: immortal_helen
Powers: Longevity thanks to an injection of vampire blood, slight empathic abilities
Allegiance: Good

Relationships: Family-wise, the most important relationship in Helen's life is that with her daughter Ashley. Ashley is the product of her complicated romantic relationship with John Druitt, a scientist from the Victorian Era like Helen who was also part of the Five. Helen loved him very much and planned to marry him, but after his injection of vampire blood gave him the ability to travel through time, brain damage as a side effect caused him to descend into increasingly homicidal behavior. After he finally snapped, he became Jack the Ripper, forcing Helen to attempt to stop him when she discovered what he was doing. He fled, and not long afterwards, Helen found she was carrying his child. Unable to have his baby at the time, both because of the threat of John still looming and of society's shun of unmarried women having children, but not able to completely abort the child either, Helen had the embryo removed and frozen. After more than a hundred years, loneliness and a wish to provide a life for her child led her to re-implant the embryo in late 1983. She gave birth to Ashley eight months later and was as devoted to her as she was to her work though she never told her about her father until forced by John's actions when he reappeared in her life.
Friendships: Though Helen has been advisor to kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and all manner of world leaders over the years and has spent time with luminaries such as Gershwin and the Beatles, she does not have many close friends because of the nature of her work. In the Victorian Era, her friends made up the Five and included John and Nikola Tesla, now a vampire. Today, there are four she would consider to be in her close circle of friends and family - her daughter Ashley; Henry Foss, a brilliant computer scientist, weapon maker and werewolf whom she saved as a child and considers in many ways to be a son; Bigfoot, a former Sanctuary patient who now works for Helen and is also a confidant; and Will Zimmerman, another brilliant young scientist Helen saved as a child as she knew he would grow up to do extraordinary things. She brought him into the Sanctuary twenty years later to help in her work with Abnormals.

Sexuality: Bisexual (when you've lived as long as Helen has...)

Strengths: Helen has an obvious gift for science and medicine as demonstrated by the fact that she was one of the first female doctors in the Western world. She is proficient at her research and very good at reaching out to those who need help whether they're human or abnormal. She is also very good at handling firearms and protecting herself, skills she passed to her daughter (who surpasses her in those areas now). Her knowledge and determination have made her well sought after around the world by those seeking assistance.
Weaknesses: John Druitt was and always will be Helen's greatest weakness. She was never able to kill him even though he became one of the most notorious serial killers in history. His presence will shake her resolve, causing her to hesitate in a situation where she normally wouldn't. She also worries a great deal for those she takes in at the Sanctuary, something that can be used against her.
Habits/Quirks: Though Helen has lived in many different places over the last 150 years and now considers America her home, she is British to the core. She finds making and drinking tea to be a soothing and helpful ritual when she needs to unwind or think. She also employs many other techniques from different cultures around the world to help in rest and relaxation when the mood strikes her.
Personality: Though born in the Victorian Era, Helen was never a typical Victorian female. She eschewed the role of homemaker that most would have had her take on, instead begging her father - who told her she had so much potential - to share his secrets with her as she wanted to help make a difference. This determination allowed her to take on the knowledge of abnormals and other dark secrets. She's long managed to show herself as an equal to men while still maintaining her femininity, and despite the views on female sexuality at the time and how sex was only for procreation, she was far more open to her desires, taking John as her lover before they were ever to have been married. Her sexual liberty continued through the years with her taking on both male and female lovers. Additionally, Helen has a good sense of humor and a caring empathy about her.
What was your character doing before they arrived on the island? For more than 150 years, Helen has maintained the Sanctuary, a place created by her father for abnormals - those with strange powers or other "deformities" - to come for help and refuge in a world that would otherwise see them destroyed. The Sanctuary also serves as prison to those too dangerous to allow freedom. In addition to her work there, she has also assisted many world leaders and been witness to many of history's defining events, including the Yalta Conference of World War II. Right before she is brought to the Island, Helen and Will go in her submarine, the Nautilus, to the Bermuda Triangle to answer a distress call from the merfolk living there. Upon arriving, they find an apparent genocide of the species has taken place, only to soon learn it was caused by parasite that lodges in the brain stem - and Helen has been infected because of her examination of a mermaid body. As the parasite causes her to descend into violence and paranoia, Will takes control of the submarine and traps her in the control room, letting the air supply run out in order to kill her and make the parasite leave her body. When Helen wakes up, she finds that she is no longer on the Nautilus, but is instead on a strange Island... (Sanctuary, Season 1 TV, Episode 9, "Requiem")

Writing Example:
"It's going to be all right," Helen murmured softly to the young boy in her arms as she rocked him back and forth after she took him out of the backseat of her car. He curled against her, holding her tightly, so she continued to speak to him in hushed tones as she walked into her large estate house. Her footsteps resounded on the hardwood floors, echoing through the foyer into the large sitting room beyond.

Bigfoot appeared at door to the kitchen, watching her silently as she headed for the staircase leading upstairs, not the lift that would take them down. She glanced over at him and gave him a smile, to which he nodded before pulling back into the shadows. Sometimes, she didn't know what she would do without him. Quickly, she continued upstairs to one of the bedrooms where she carefully set the boy on the bed before kneeling down in front of him, gently brushing his slightly long and scraggly hair back from his face.

"Now, Henry, you're safe," she told him. "You can live here with me, for as long as you wish. No matter what happens you have a home in my Sanctuary."

There was a knock on the door, so Helen pushed herself up and went over to open it. Bigfoot was standing outside with a tray holding a sandwich, soup and a glass of milk. He was making sure to stay out of view - no need to frighten the boy before he was ready. Enough that his own parents had almost torn him apart that night.

"Thank you," she told her friend before taking the tray and going back inside. "Here you go, Henry. You can eat and then have a wash."

Once she set the tray down, she stood back and gave the boy another smile while she rested her hand over her abdomen. Her unborn daughter kicked again as she had been most of the night.

"Yes, Ashley," she said softly. "He's safe now. And you'll have a friend here while you two grow up in this strange world."