undergrounds | time for a check up (open post)

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time for a check up (open post)

KNOW CLARA?

You may then know, more or less, the incident of her granddaughter getting kidnapped by the vampires. It distressed her but she's fine. Honest to goodness she's fine.

It's normal for her to worry for people she cares for. It's pretty normal for her to think of all the worst case scenarios some of them could find themselves in due to their personalities/their histories/their everything.

It's very normal for her to suddenly check on them one day out of the blue, just appearing next to them without a warning or a heads up.

"Are you okay?"

She's totally calmed down about the incident last month. Really.

DON'T KNOW CLARA?

What do you mean by that?

Now you do as she suddenly phases through the wall and looks directly at you during her search for everyone she knows.

It doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing. It doesn't matter if there are people there or you're supposed to be by yourself. Suddenly you have a woman staring at you in confusion for a second before it registers in her head that no. You're not someone she knows through passing.

"Um. Oops."

[ OOC: Or make your own scenario in your comment! Prose and brackets welcomed! ]

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Now she's very grateful she didn't give her full name out. She needs another tangible adult here. Please?

"Haha… I'm glad I'm not being a bother to you." Her smile is a bit more nervous and she thinks, perhaps, it's best to assume he likes his personal space and she makes no more attempts to get closer. To be, um, respectful. Yes. That's the reason. "Cephei… That's such an interesting name you have. You're definitely someone I haven't seen before around these parts of the city."

Having been around for more than a decade, she likes to think she has a good memory for faces. More so for people who are more than people.

Even Heiji looked surprised. Seriously? Well, at least he knew their names now. "Miss Clara, isn't intense just another word for weird?" Especially in Willard's case. Intensely weird.

"Ms. Sommerset. That name don't really ring a bell. What'd she look like? She tell ya anything else?" Actually, it was a bit of a sinister name in how ordinary it was. He hoped it wasn't some sort of Eldritch abomination coming to town. "I haven't heard anything 'bout any 'powers'..."

Elsa had been grading some papers in her cave of an office when she was suddenly alerted to a presence by the sound of a somewhat familiar voice. She hadn't been expecting to hear it in the vicinity of her left ear though and she jumps, dropping her pen and putting a hand over her heart.

"Oh! Uh... Hi."

"I did manage to avoid all that. Where were they? I admit I'm curious about what happened."

Mostly so that he knows what places are safe to go and what ones aren't. He'd rather avoid vampires if could help it. It's a natural inclination as a shapeshifter after all.

"Not that I've seen. Granted I've been avoiding those neighborhoods as well. No need to cause more suspicion."

Ringer drops her hand from her gun, fairly convinced it wouldn't do much good anyway, and watches the shelves for any sign of the ghost. When the woman reappears, she blinks and stares. It's a strange thing to see a person phase through solid material. It's possible she's an odd meta human instead, but a ghost seems more likely. Ringer's surprised how polite the woman seems.

"Do you haunt this library?" She feels silly even asking the question. Without knowing much about them, she figures the best thing she can do is ask. "I haven't seen you before."

Thank goodness. Even if she can't be hurt by a conventional gun, the sight of one being pointed at her is still rather frightening.

"The library?" Clara blinks and she looks around. As if to confirm that this is where the young lady meant. Her? Haunt this place? "No! Not at all, miss. I'm just here looking for a friend of mine. Seems like I'm in the wrong library though. That's what I get for not looking at the street signs more thoroughly."

So she's an old ghost then. She's been around long enough to leave her first haunting grounds to see more of the world. "I hope I didn't interrupt your studies, miss. I'm sorry for spooking you like that a second ago."

"Heiji!"

… she didn't deny it though. And she's happy to focus the topic on something else but poor Willard who, she knows, has a lot on his plate as it is. "She was very pretty! Such lovely green eyes and she was very... um... What's that word people here use again? Posh, that's it."

Not much of a description of the woman and it could be because Clara is deliberately(?) holding back. "I never did too until she pointed that out to me that things are changing, so to speak, and don't you think that makes sense? Considering what's been happening for a while?"

The vampires. The witches. The hunters. Something is happening among the groups and it was something big.

"Hello!" Clara says cheerfully as she waves a happy wave, needing a second to realise she may have spooked her a bit with her surprise visit. Then remorse becomes evident in her features, cheeks turning red from embarrassment though she had no blood in her cheeks in the first place. "I'm sorry! I hope I'm not interrupting you at the moment, miss."

She notices the papers and worries, for a second, she may have picked a wrong time to do this. "I-- Just wanted to say hello and see how you were doing. We've met in the past."

"They were hiding out somewhere in Greenwich, I think. They're gone now." She sighs at that point, relieved. "All for the better in my opinion. They weren't-- They didn't care for the rules. They hurt people."

She makes a face, her lips twisting into something almost close to a sneer, and then she suppresses her negative feelings so a happy(ish) smile is back again. No need to be a Debbie Downer or a Sour Susan. "Well! That's good to hear. I'm glad you're keeping out of trouble. I was worried for a bit when I couldn't find you. You're quite good at sneaking around!"

He laughed a little, but turned a bit more serious when Clara went on to describe the woman. Well, he did know a few people with green eyes...

"I s'ppose so. Course, I haven't been here as long as you have. But times are always changing. Le vent se leve!.... il faut tenter de vivre!" If anything, his upbringing had taught him that. The human world was changing faster and faster, with a million little developments all happening at once. Of course, now those changes were more incremental. A smaller computer, a more fuel-efficient combustible engine. Not like the leaps and bounds of a few decades ago. But perhaps that, too, would shift.

“No, I don’t usually spend much time here. But that may change; I am growing ever fonder of this place,” he said.

And in fact, he was only out today because he was scouting potential territory, although he imagined he’d be spending a lot more time in this city once he could lay claim to part of it.

Ringer nods, helping to confirm the location. The ghost is apparently free to wander the streets as she sees fit, which is new information. It's a touch unnerving, to think someone unseen might be able to follow someone. On the other hand, that could also make for an amazing ally. Without any motive other than to learn more, the girl looks over and returns the book in her hand to its place on the shelf.

"Not at all. I'm sorry I reacted so strongly. I'm not used to ghosts." A sincere admission. "May I accompany you to find your friend? I'd need to travel through doors, but I can be quick. I would appreciate the opportunity to get to know you."

A pause, then she offers her hand, not sure if ghosts can shake. "My name's Ringer."

Sirius nods. He has no love for vampires himself, considering they are the enemy of shapeshifters.

"Who got rid of them?" He had to ask. The part of him that craves action wishes he could have been part of it, but he knows he has to keep low.

"I do my best. I'd rather people not find me so I've been moving every so often."

Which is hard, but necessary. For now at least.

"No, no, you're fine." Elsa was startled, but honestly she loves the interruption. These papers are both boring and relatively badly written so any distraction is welcomed. Procrastination, thy name is grad student. "Right, yes.. your name is Clara, right?"

She blinks, a little surprised. Partly from the language -- was that Russian? -- and partly because of how certain Heiji is that this will all be better, sooner or later.

It's nice. Clara smiles at him, glad someone is hopeful that this will, in a way, blow over and all the changes that happen are things that should happen. That's a way to look at it. "I have no idea what that means but I'm sure that that Russian saying is true! Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid but... it doesn't hurt, I like to think. Being more careful about things and people."

She starts to relax a little bit, just a little bit, when she hears that he doesn't spend a lot of time here but is warming up to it. Oh. So... Doing something like house shopping then? Looking for somewhere to stay? A home away from home?

If she puts it in that context then there's nothing nefarious about that.

"I hope you spend more time here then, Cephei! London is a very lovely place. Interesting too but I bet you knew that by now." Judging by how he wasn't surprised by her presence. "Besides a few little hiccups here and there, it's a great place to live if you want somewhere exciting. Long as you don't mind the occasional surprise here and there like spooks like me and other things."

Worse things for an example.

He laughed. "It's French. Means 'the wind is rising -- we must try to live'. Sometimes things are set in motion, yeah? And the best you can hope to do is try and live the best ya can."

Whatever was on the horizon, he'd face it when it came. Of course, Clara was right that it didn't hurt to have concern for your friends...

Clara waves her hand to brush away most of the apology, not taking any offence from the almost incident.

"It's fine! I would have been surprised too if someone just popped up right next to me like this." She tries her best to not have hard feelings. Which is why she takes the offered hand to give a shake, her 'touch' soft and cool after she gives herself a second to become more tangible to the world. "I'm Clara! It's a pleasure to meet you, Ringer."

The offer to help her find her missing friend is a pleasant surprise. Not what she expected so soon from a first meeting. "Are you sure you want to help a silly ghost like me look for an old friend of mine? I thought you were studying and I would hate to interfere with your schooling."

Education is important after all. She doesn't want to be the cause of a poor test score or a rushed project.

"Some people I know," she answers him. "A nice young man who goes by the name of Heiji and another boy my gran-- my associate knew. The two of them stepped in to solve the problem."

It felt strange, calling her granddaughter something so distant. Though, in a way, it is the truth since she's nothing more but stories and memories of other people to the Redbright girl. Thankfully she doesn't have to focus on that a lot when Sirius says something that brings her attention:

"Not find you...? Are you okay?" So she does have a reason to fret! "Oh no. Sirius, are you okay? Are you fine?"

Her smile is a sunny one and it only becomes more sunny when Elsa remembers her name. "I am! I'm the, ah, guardian, of sorts, to one of the students here in the school."

She's still negotiating with the rest of the staff if she can help out somehow so fingers crossed on that. Until she's sure of the arrangement, she's not going to put all her eggs in a basket. "How are you doing? It looks like you have a lot of work to do today. I can bet a dollar or two that most of them are last minute submissions. Thanks to the near end of the school year of course."

"Oh!" She looks embarrassed that she got that wrong, feeling foolhardy that she didn't know that but nonetheless charmed by the saying. "That's a way to live."

Or, in her case, live the most she can. She likes to think she lived a long and fulfilling life in its own way. It brought her happiness, her family, and brought her to this point when it should have ended in 1998. Strange how life works at times. "Right! I want to live the best I can! I want to help by becoming a security guard and I'll also ask them for weekend breaks too during the talk!"

Living the dream, Clara. Truly living the dream. "--Huh. I just realised something, Heiji."

"Way to go! They can't make ya work every day; you gotta demand benefits!" And unionize! Did ghosts have unions? In any case, Heiji clearly thought this was an excellent idea, especially if Clara was fired up about it.

A lot of spirits were sort of listless and depressed -- without much purpose. That Clara continued to find ways to be connected to this world was perhaps not so good from a moving-on point of view, but at least it made her happy.

"What is it? Nothing bad, I hope."

"Oh, no, I love surprises. Predictability is so boring, and I'm not afraid of spooks or other things," he said, "You, on the other hand. I'd imagine greeting strangers out of the blue can end in some rather awkward situations."

Not that a frightened human could actually hurt her, but awkward is awkward.

Ringer accepts the gentle shake with equal measure, noting that information as well. It's actually pretty cool to be shaking hands with a ghost, not that she'll admit that. At least the woman seems friendly and her news at having friends who might be found in libraries is unexpected as well. Ringers wonders idly if Clara's friends are ghosts or humans, or something else.

"Nice to meet you," she replies in turn. The girl is actually quite polite when her physical health isn't threatened. "I'm not enrolled in classes at the moment. I was studying for my own interests."

Small world, since he had met Heiji before. Although, he couldn't really bring up that since he was a dog when that happened. And he's been doing his best to keep those separate for the time being. Just in case someone puts two and two together.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, really," Sirius says. He really should have been more careful. "It's a bit of a long story."

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time for a check up (open post)

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I'm going to go with doesn't know but is maybe familiar with because Elsa works at Redbright?

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Sure!

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