undergrounds | stop! ghost time (open post)

Entry tags:

stop! ghost time (open post)

JULY 21; COFFEERS' SHOP (LATE AFTERNOON)

Clara doesn't always snoop around the city and sometimes her work isn't always needed in the school. Sometimes she likes to stay in the shop. Sometimes she enjoys listening to idle conversation of the customers, not really listening in on them, that'll be rude, but nonetheless enjoying the buzz of activity the shop has during their busiest hours.

And sometimes that isn't enough. That's when she goes over and pokes around the lost and found box, seeing what's there and if anything is something that belongs to a current patron she can give back to without them looking. It's there that she finds a pair of marigold gloves during her search and about them draws her to them... Naturally she reaches out to and concentrates a bit to have a goodish grasp of it to see if there's a nametag anywhere when she notices a peculiar thing:

It feels... solid under her touch, real and tangible without the strange numbness to her fingertips she's become accustomed to at this rate. It takes her a second to realise what this means. She can touch them! She can hold them! She can do it with ease, most importantly of all.

Oh, what an exciting day for her as she mutters one little apology under her breath and zips off to the back of the shop with her new item. Already she has a little million ideas for them popping into mind, the excitement of the discovery along with the possibilities just enough to drown out her guilt for taking something out of the lost and found box that isn't hers.

JULY 25; AROUND THE CITY (ALL DAY)

After the last few days of activity, Clara decides it's time to be both proactive and to use her gloves to her advantage.

She'll now be found in areas that she usually doesn't snoop around in her attempts to glean information: The darker parts of the city, the seedier alleyways of the town, and etc. She'll peek through windows and go through walls, doing her best to stay invisible and quiet as a mouse while going through things with a newfound ease thanks to her gloves. (When she can bear the itching for long as she can, of course. Goodness do they chafe her skin.)

From Haringey to Hackney to Waltham Forest and then some, she'll be exploring and peeping into a lot of people today if she can. It's risky but she does her best. If she's to be a good observer of information, she needs to dig deep and hope she finds some things out, see what's going on in the heart of the city.

[ OOC: Or make your own scenario in your comment! Prose and brackets welcomed! A note, though, is that only one person can step in to help Clara get rid of the medium that she'll run into on July 25.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"They did! Someone filmed it and I have a video of it too." The man begins looking in his bag to pull something out, a laptop maybe, to play the video as Bianca is now more than happy to take a swig of her too cold drink if it gets the taste of dread out of her mouth. "It's not the first time she did this sort of thing, breaking lightbulbs and disrupting technology, but it's fact she blew out multiples is what blows my mind. Usually she only takes out a lightbulb or a streelamp. She took out several for some reason."

"Maybe she was in a bit of a mood," Bianca offers while she tries to take a glance at Clara to quietly ask with her eyes did you really do that?

To which the ghost can only shake her head in reply. "It's a long story, Bianca. Mostly involves another ghost and an interesting chat we had. My friend meant no harm at the time."

"Aw man, I think I forgot my laptop at home." What a stroke of luck! Both Bianca and Clara sigh in relief inwardly, glad that he didn't have that incriminating vi-- "Oh wait! I have my recorder here. Do you guys want to hear her speak?"

What.

Faolan sits forward in his seat, fascinated not only with the man's offer to show his proof, but also at Bianca's reactions to everything he has to say. It's almost as though she has a personal investment in...what? Something about the ghost, if not the ghost itself. Is it this place, maybe? She did say that she was a regular, after all.

"What sort of speech is this, then?" Faolan asks. He glances towards Bianca again and she's looking -- what, alarmed? She's definitely not anticipating whatever it is that this guy has to offer, that's for certain. For all Faolan knows, though, it could be one of those white noise suggestive whispers that any right-minded skeptic would write off right away. He's certainly not seen anything out of the ordinary in this coffee shop. Well, not much anyway.

"Aha! Here it is!"

Bianca looks at the darn recorder with some measured of annoyance but it could be just her annoyed that her conversation with Faolan has been thoroughly hijacked by a third party here. At least he seems quite interested in all of this, detrimental as it maybe for Clara as the man clicks a button and the tape begins to play.

"… swea…" A few false starts here and there but you can hear it, admits the sounds of people chatting in the coffee shop. That's a woman's voice for sure, saying words that can't be mistaken for static or noise. "… sweater… please…

"Please wear… so col…"

"See! It's a ghost!" He looks so happy that he can share this with people now. "See how she mentions being cold? Clearly a spirit still confused being in this realm."

"I resent that remark," Clara can't help but add, wrinkling her noise. Did her accent sound that obvious to other people? She feels a bit self-conscious now. "I'm asking someone to please wear a sweater. The winter was awful! Of course I'll ask someone to please wear a sweater. They could got a cold or something. I hope he doesn't take this too seriously."

"Mmm," Faolan says, making a noise in response to the 'evidence', though he's thinking much the same thing as Clara is saying. Even if it is the recording of a ghost -- which Faolan is not agreeing on one way or the other -- the words are broken, fractured. And by all accounts, it sounds to him like the woman is saying something about how the person she's addressing should wear a sweater since it's cold. Whether or not ghosts would give such advice is hardly for Faolan to decide, he supposes.

"What you have there, my friend," he tells the man, "is the recording of a woman. A woman talking about a sweater, and the fact that it is cold. I cannot tell you that it's a ghost, nor can I tell you that it is one, but you're going to need a lot more evidence than a few words recorded in the middle of a crowded coffee shop. That's hardly an EVP, and certainly not one of merit, I'm sorry to say." And thus does Faolan unintentionally reveal his own dealings with the supernatural. Ah, well. He'd be more careful if they had just let him finish his coffee before starting on this. He wonders, idly, what his companion thinks of all of this, and chances an apologetic glance in her direction.

When one puts it that way, the suddenly strange becomes the mundane with the menacing spirit to a woman fussing over chill. Phew! She's glad someone was able to explain that away before Bianca had to and make herself stand out more. Clara knows it doesn't mean much seeing how he can't seem to hear her, like most people, but all the same she says in relief with utter gratitude, "Thank you so much."

The man visibly wilts at the response, sad but unable to argue with that logic as he grumbles, "Well I thought no one said that when I was recording it."

Bianca doesn't mind at all, judging from the smile she throws at him that's almost grateful.

And though she's happy that the third party's ghost bubble was popped, so to speak, Bianca's eyebrows can't help and raise up in surprise as she looks at Faolan, intrigued to hear him say that type of jargon. Usually she hears it from the mediums and ghost hunters and he doesn't strike her as doing it as a hobby.

"Sounds like you have an idea or two of how this sort of things work," she says, making sure it's with a joking tone so he can brush off if needed. "Not afraid of spooks overhearing this, are you?"

Faolan nods at the man slightly, feeling a little poorly to have shot him down like that, but what he's said is true, and if he's going to go around thrusting his evidence in other people's faces, it had better be good. "Better luck next time, my friend," he tells him, before turning back to the girl sitting with him with a shrug.

"I suppose that I do," he says, honestly, because it's true. He hasn't had all that much experience in ghost hunting, his experience is mostly with vampires and werewolves. Ghosts generally keep themselves to themselves, and if they are terrorizing people, then chances are they're probably not your average ghost in the first place. Much the same as with his dealings with the rest of the supernaturals, Faolan's of the opinion that it's pretty much a case by case sort of a business. Don't do anything wrong, and there's no reason for him to have to come after you.

He glances around them, at the supposed spooks, before back at her. "And no, I'm not too concerned. Even if that were an official EVP, if the ghost is fretting about someone needing a sweater, I hardly think that you and I have anything to worry about, now do we?" There, an innocent enough statement, right? Neither confirming nor denying his involvement with the Hillingdon Clan.

Seeing that their third friend has retreated back to his personal work, muttering about 'more proof' and 'evidence' under his breath as he typed on his laptop frantically, Bianca's smile is much nicer and more relaxed now.

The coolness in the air around Bianca and Faolan's table seems to lighten up as Clara relaxes now that the coast is clear for the time being. She thought she was a goner for sure and someone else would believe in the Harrowing Ghost. (She's never going to get over that name. What a horrid title to get and for that to stick--)

"That's the way to look at it!" Bianca can't help but have her tone be a bit dry despite her perkiness. "She means no harm, I'm sure, but the idea of there being a dangerous ghost, I suppose, is more interesting than a nice ghost. People seem so afraid of things or people that they don't know."

Clara raises her eyebrows at the girl in concern, hoping the student doesn't give herself away too soon in such a public place. "Careful, Bianca. He's a very nice man, yet, but you need to be sure."

She is speaking awfully specifically, for someone who had been uncomfortable with the mention of the ghost earlier. Faolan's a smart man, he's starting to understand something of the picture here. That perhaps there is a ghost here. That perhaps this Bianca might have some sort of a connection with her. Or at least she may believe that she does, as a regular of the place and all. And while she's uncomfortable with the other man's curiosity, it was because he had come to misunderstand the entity, not because he had taken an interest in her in the first place.

"Are you familiar with them, then?" he asks. "Ghosts, I mean? You did say that you were a regular of the place. If the shop is haunted, you must have something of a fancy in them yourself then...?"

Clara and Bianca share a brief blink-and-you-miss exchange of looks as they try to decide if they should be more honest or be more obtuse. There's no turning back on what will happen next after all. Can they trust him? Can they hope for the best that he means well in a way that doesn't involve trouble for Clara or a danger for Bianca down the line?

There's only one way to find out.

"It isn't what I would call a fancy, really," Bianca says as she sneaks a look around to make sure someone isn't eavesdropping on them. She wouldn't be worried of it if not for their friend earlier. "Just happens to be knowledge in it along with all sort of other things. London has all sorts of secrets here thanks to how long its been around. I like to think I know a lot of them is all."

That's quite a brag for someone young-looking as hers. "And you? Do you consider your knowledge of EVP and such just a 'fancy' or more?"

Faolan regards her for a moment, trying to figure her out. Whatever she's just told him, she hasn't outright told him yet. But he's gotten enough from her to understand that she knows. She might not know everything, but she knows enough for him not to have to worry about being careful around her. Or conversely, for him to watch just what exactly he lets out. Depending on who might come to find this out through her later on.

"I'd say it's a bit more than a fancy," he says, taking a sip of his coffee, and then deciding to take the safest route he can. Leaving the Hillingdon part out of it for now -- that can make people nervous, and really, he's not one of the clan that would go hunting something down for no reason. So instead he reaches into his jacket and pulls out a card, sliding it across the table at her. It's got his name (Faolan O'Neill) and his contact information (phone, email), but little else. Written in black ink on a white card. Plain and simple.

"I'm a private investigator," he says. "I guess you could say that this side of things is sort of my specialty."

"I never heard of his name in the school," Clara observes quietly as Bianca takes the card to read whatever information is there. She hovers behind her shoulder to peer though all she gets is a name and contact numbers that she can't use for now. "Must work for some other people. Or he could be a freelancer. I actually hope it's the former; the rates he must have to pay if the latter, poor thing."

Biting back a smile, Bianca decides at long last how to handle this as she sets the card back down and looks at Faolan. "Explains earlier then with him over there."

Bianca looks down and fishes something from under her blouse to discreetly flash him the item to give him a good look.

It's a simple neck, a silver disc with intricate symbols carved on its surface, and to most they would just assume it's a pretty trinket and nothing more. But anyone who is in the know would know what it really is -- A witch's amulet, meant to protect the wearer from the supernatural's attempts to read or control her mind.

"You can never be too careful at times after all," she continued as she tucked the necklace back in. "Especially considering your line of work in this city. Quite a specialisation for you to take."

Faolan shrugs slightly. "I guess you could say it ran in the family," he says, although he leaves it at that. Also to be noted: past tense. Ran in the family, then his family died. There had been a reason they'd encouraged him to pursue his talents, his dreams. There'd been a reason why they had died. There had been a reason why his dreams had died with them, as far as he was concerned.

Unlike Bianca, Faolan doesn't have anything to pull out and denote himself as what he is, except for perhaps his guns and his hunting gear, which he's definitely not whipping out in the middle of a crowded cafe. But he obviously recognizes what she's wearing, and he immediately reassesses her. "Now where'd you come by a trinket like that?" he asks her, letting her hide it away once more, but definitely not letting it out of mind.

"It came from your grandmother, didn't it?" Clara asked Bianca as the witch tucked her necklace from sight. "I believe you told me that before."

The girl nods, to both answer Clara's question and Faolan's question. She's much more relaxed compared to her peppiness before, perhaps realising the gravity of meeting another person not from her well-known circle. Someone familiar and yet not familiar at the same time. "It's a family heirloom. Got it from my gran. I guess you can say what I do runs in the family too. I need a bit of help with it though since I'm new to it so I go to a school to help myself and others."

The Redbright Institute, she means.

"Ah," Faolan says, making a soft noise of recognition. He might not attend the school, but he's been a hunter for a long time not to have heard of the Institute. A lot of cogs start shifting into place. "I know of the place. Never been myself, but I know of it."

And he knows what that makes her then, too. And what that makes her capable of. Eventually, if perhaps not now. He lowers his voice slightly as he continues, raising his coffee to take another sip. "That means you'd know, of course, if that man were lying or not. About a presence in this shop." He raises an eyebrow at her questioningly, although he hasn't outright asked. It's her choice of course whether he wants to tell the truth. But he's become pretty good at reading people, over the years. He's had to, with the line of work he's in.

Bianca grins, glad to finally have confirmation that he's in the know of what she knows. When he asks, but not really ask, her the status of the ghost here in the coffee shop, she pretends to think over her answer though the spirit in question is right next to her giving her a 'oh you' look. She needs to bite the inside of her cheek to not smile.

"Well-- I can definitely say he was misinformed about lot of things," Bianca tells him with a cheeky and honest smile as she finally looks at a direction next to her. No one is there and yet it's like she's locking eyes with someone for a moment of debating with the 'person' before addressing him again. "The idea of her being dangerous is kind of funny. The most she'll do is ruin your coffee like she did to mine earlier."

Clara, despite knowing that he can't hear or see her at the moment, waves at his direction and gives a polite 'hello' to him. It never hurts to be too careful. Or give someone a proper greeting since she is eavesdropping, more or less, in a conversation here. "It's not like I meant to earlier, Bianca. I didn't think that server would just stroll on by like that! You should be glad I didn't hit him earlier otherwise we would have this conversation much sooner, less surer."

Faolan quirks an eyebrow at her, the corner of his mouth joining suit in the twisting of a wry smile. He flicks his eyes towards the space that she looks at, but he's just an ordinary human, like it or not, and all he sees is blank space. "Is that what happened, then?" he asks. He draws his own closer to him in mock concern. "This might be the last cup I should be allowed all day," he says, addressing the air around them, "try and spare me if you can, yeah?"

He looks back to Bianca. "You know her, then," he says, and it's less of a question and more of a statement. He sits back in his seat and speaks up to continue, knowing it's an odd way to put things and wanting to be slightly reassuring. "The way you talk about her, I can tell. Plus the thing with the sweater..." He chuckles slightly, raising his coffee once more. "It's the first time I've heard an EVP of someone fussing like that, but I suppose there's a first time for everything, yeah?"

Bianca gives her own smile while she raises her cup a bit to and gives a swirl to emphasis how cold it sounds. The foam is more like slush thanks to the chill as it moves around in the styrofoam sluggishly. "You have no idea how often she does that. You think she'll age with grace but--"

Clara shoots Bianca a look and pokes her hand through her arm to show you can't sass this little old lady when she's around. It causes the redhead to squeak a bit and jump in her seat, miffed but amused. "--eek! Apparently not. Wait, hang on... She says she'll spare you. You seem very nice and not 'at all rude' like someone... Hey. Mrs. Seville."

Calming down, Bianca still finds enough humour in the situation to laugh herself, eyes twinkling in genuine merriment while she nods. "Anyways-- I know her for sure, yeah. She's part of the school staff as security in the evening. She's been with the school for a while but only joined in a official capacity last... month or so? Volunteered and everything. I never seen a ghost do that before since, you know, they're usually gone in a bit."

Bianca's smile fades a bit when something occurs to her, her expression turning a bit more serious. "Since you know she's real and you've been a great guy so far... You don't need to, um, do anything about it, right? I mean, some others and I can definitely vouch for her friendliness if we need to."

Faolan raises his eyebrows slightly at the idea of it. He can't say for certain that he's heard of a ghost sticking around long enough to be staff anywhere himself, but he supposes that there are firsts for everything, and again, his expertise is more around vampires than around ghosts.

Which, of course, brings them to her next question. Faolan winces slightly at it, internally, but it's a legitimate question. Not every hunter from Hillingdon is the same as him. There are some that would jump at the chance to hear about something like this. And jump at the chance to be able to eradicate her as well. "No," he says, looking down at the coffee in his hands, sobering slightly himself. As if he has just been reminded who he is and the fact that he, well. Essentially does kill as a profession. What is he doing, chatting with a student in a cafe like this? "No," he repeats. "I don't have to do anything about it. I'm not... I'm my own man, for all the organization I work for. If she's not harming anyone, I don't see why I should." And with the way he says it, he knows that he doesn't share everyone's opinions on this, that she's right to be asking as much. And that he feels almost ashamed about that, in some regards.

Bianca's heckles lower as she scans his face for the truth and, seemingly decides, that he's telling the truth to her. Clara next to her sighs in relief and decides she'll take his word for it too, a little bit nervous at the prospect of someone going after her. Again.

"That's good to hear," the girl says. Realising her attitude might have been a bit much, she does add, "Hey-- Sorry if it seems like I was on the defensive but... Better safe than sorry these days, yeah? I can't help but feel like everyone's on each other's throats if the gossip in my school is anything to go by. Last thing I want to do is let nice people get dragged into anything. You included."

"Can you tell him thank you?" Clara asked. "It means a lot to me that nothing will happen now that he knows."

The girl smiles at the invisible space before relaying the message, "Oh. I should let you know: She does say 'thank you', by the way. It means a lot to her."

"The gossip at your school?" Faolan can't help but asking, raising his eyebrows slightly as he does. He's not in attendance at the Redbright Institute, after all, maybe what they're saying around there is something he hasn't heard yet. Hillingdon is a great faction and all, but if he wants to hear anything about anything, then he's got to do the work himself. If there's one thing he can count on them doing, it's staying the hell out of just about any sort of business there is, frustratingly enough. "And just what is the gossip on about?" he asks.

At the thanks, Faolan can't help but glancing himself to the space where the young girl did -- maybe if he looks in just the right way at just the right time he might spot her. No such luck so far though. After a moment, he glances back to Bianca. It feels better to address her than thin air. "You're welcome," he says to both of them. "I do what I can."

"There's been weird things going on lately," she explains to him, waving her hand in a somewhat dismissive but peppy manner. Is that possible? Somehow it is with her. "The faeries acting up and coming here out of the blue, the witches' fighting becoming more prominent, the vampires being more reckless, and the werewolves being more quiet-- Things like that."

Clara, in her opinion, doesn't think one can be so casual about it. "Not the best thing for anyone at the moment, I like to believe. It's almost like having a keg full of gunpowder near some lit matches..."

The student can't help but look behind her, seeing her table of friends spying her in an obvious manner at this point. She winches and shakes her head, huffing in amusement as she looks back at Faolan and gives him a smile. "Looks like my friends are going to start gossiping about the two of us soon! I'm so sorry for that in advance. They can get pretty nosy at times. Wha-- 'Takes one to know--' Oh! Ha ha, Mrs. Seville. Very funny."

Faolan raises his eyebrows at the idea of anyone gossiping about him. Especially with a girl so much younger than him. (Okay, so he's only 28, hes not that old, but he feels it, and talking to a girl of her age he feels so especially. So of course he'll be be surprised they think anything of the sort.

"I'm pretty sure that I can take them," Faolan says, wryly. "I hunt monsters for a living. I'm fairly certain I can handle a group of gossiping teenagers. Though if you mean that to be my cue to take my coffee to go, then I can take a hint just as well," he adds, with the quirk of a smile and the raising of his coffee to take a pointed sip as well.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

stop! ghost time (open post)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject