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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"Aradia and Willard?" Heiji tilted his head over at Clara. "They ghost friends of yours?" It certainly would be convenient to have a brochure, though. Or a book. Like in Spiderjuice.

He smiled back at her. "Anyway, no problem. Just thought you should know about it. Guess bein' a ghost really ain't easy, huh?" Like so many other things.

"One of them is, Aradia. Willard is a friend to us both and they're a bit prickly but they're good people." She doesn't want them to get hurt over in case neither of them knew this. Already she's beginning to fret over their safety because, really, who wants to eat a ghost?

"No-- I suppose is isn't easy but one could say it has the least pressure from... outside parties?" That's it. No one would pay much attention to a ghost. They're affect the world around them as much and are unable to form a group or organisation to help each other out like how the others can thanks to a lot of reasons.

She droops a little bit at that point, recalling what Mrs. Sommerset told her. "I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing these days. Being able to avoid trouble. I was told there were... powers coming here."

Hmmm. "They wouldn't happen to be a dark-haired ghost who likes puns and a weird fella with gold eyes and a patch of dyed hair?" No, that would be too much of a coincidence. WAY too much.

"'Powers'?" Heiji looked confused. To a fae, 'powers' sounded rather ominous. Maybe someone even more powerful than the courts? "Where'd ya hear that? You mean like another vampire? Or a whole bunch of dark witches?"

"You know them!" Clara claps her hands together and her eyes sparkle, happy to see the three of them knew each other in a way. What a small (other) world after all! "That's them alright! In advance, I'm sorry for Willard but he means well. He isn't weird at all! Just, ah, intense."

Like how the sun is just warm.

"I need to find them soon after this. Let them know about the powers-- in the city. Apparently 'they're' moving in. Whoever they are." Now she needs a moment to recall the name of the nice lady she met, mostly to make sure she'll say the name right. "I spoke to a... a Ms. Sommerset! Yes. That's her name. She warned me of it when we met in Coffeers' Shop."

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'..."

"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.

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.

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."

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...

"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."

It's going to take either a long time or a lot of convincing for Clara to seriously begin looking for what is keeping her tied to the living world still, to do what she needed if she wanted peace while she still could do it. For now, she's happy with the pace of her life and with the goals she's setting up for herself.

Plus ghost unions and ghost union meetings. Whenever the idea comes to mind, of course.

"It's nothing bad. Not at all! I just never know what you do with your free time now that I think about it." She has a faint idea he works at a eating place of some sort. Frightening as the first few hours of Magra's disappearance was, she remembered the earlier parts of it before the rescue. "What do you do for the most of the day if I can ask. You always seem to be on the go somewhere."

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

This question was a little hard to answer. It wasn't as though fae had jobs. Well... not most of them, anyway. "I used to work at that one cafe part-time, but I ain't had much time for that lately, so I had to turn in my notice. I help the cops out on cases sometimes, I talk to people, and I explore the city!"

He crossed his arms. "So I guess you could say I got a lot of free time. Recently I got a promotion, though, so I might get busier in the future..."

Hopefully not too busy, though. He enjoyed chatting people up and wandering around, even if sometimes he wandered exactly where he shouldn't.

Can you see the stars in Clara's eyes, Heiji? Can you?

Because there are stars in Clara's eyes when she hears that he works with the authorities, not questioning the other things he said. (Or putting much thought to them, really.)

"You help the cops with mysteries? Ohhh! Like from that TV show, Addock?" While she's not the intended demographic, Magra being the ideal viewer for it thanks to the handsome stars and stunning melodrama, Clara has become enraptured by the show that is a modern adaption of the beloved Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective stories.

How exciting!

Wow, those were some shiny stars. "Kind of," said Heiji, looking rather gratified that finally someone appreciated mysteries, mystery-solving, and all similar investigatory goodness.

"Of course, I try to keep a bit of a lower profile! Can't go around solvin' cases if everyone recognizes ya, right?"

Someone stop him.

Today will not be the case of stopping him, sadly. Clara is not going to be one of those stoppers because if anything she is an enabling enabler who enables.

"It would be hard to solve mysteries and help people out if everyone came to you. Barely be enough time in the day for yourself!" It'll be hard, having to shift through all the attention and notice he must get already He's a busy bee from her understanding and now it's beginning to make more sense on why is that!

"I bet that's why you were looking at the piece of papers of yours earlier. Related to a case of yours or something else quiet important, I bet." She's very willing to forgive you for the implication California's Universal Studios aren't as good as Japan's.

"Yeah, exactly! You get a reputation, and all of a sudden half your day is people askin' you to find their lost cat! Not that it's bad to find lost cats. I just got other stuff to do, too." Heiji was actually pretty fond of cats; they didn't take issue with him like dogs did.

"Papers?" It actually took Heiji a beat to realize what Clara meant, and then he immediately looked embarassed. "I-it's not like that! Ugh... okay, I asked Apollo if he wanted to visit my hometown with me, okay? And all of a sudden he comes out sayin' he wants to see Universal Studios. I told him wasn't any point goin' all the way to Japan to visit in when he lived in L.A., for cryin' out loud. But he insisted!"

IT WASN'T HIS FAULT. THIS WASN'T HIS IDEA.

Clara blinks a little bit at the sudden outburst, eyes wide and full of surprise as she tries to register what he told her.

It sinks in sooner rather than later. That's a good thing, right? That way Heiji isn't forced to stew too long in silence, waiting for her response.

"So you telling that you're maybe planning a trip back home with Apollo... Oh, Heiji! That's a wonderful idea!" She claps her hands together, the sound soft and subtle thanks to her being a spirit. "There's no place like home after all and with you being so busy as a detective and Apollo being so busy with almost everything these days, I do think you two deserve to have a nice break together."

Especially in a place beautiful and rich as Japan. She tilts her head and she laughs a bit, good natured through and through. "Though I have to agree that heading to Universal Studios of all places there is a bit strange. I suppose he wants to see that latest opening attraction from that wizard series or see if the rumours about the lines there are true or not."

"Y-yeah, that's what I thought, too. We can go home, do some sightseein', get some real Japanese food, have some fun. Apollo seems like he could use some. I mean, he's kinda stressed out. Plus I caught him sleepin' on the train." Would anyone ever get Heiji to say 'Tube'? It was a mystery...

"I seriously don't know what he's thinkin' about Universal Studios. Who goes to Japan to see an American theme park? Maybe he really likes movies?" Note to self: Bug Apollow about films.

"Anyway, I think it'd be fun to go see Kaiyuukan. It's one of the biggest aquariums in the world, y'know. They got a whale shark there, too. It's real cute with all those little spots."

"He fell asleep? On the train?" That's so dangerous! She clucks her tongue in disapproval. One could almost feel her concern and her 'oh honey no' feelings radiating off of her in waves. "Looks like I have another thing to worry from him besides the lack of nutritional value in his usual meals. Goodness gracious, the poor dear."

That aside, she seems quite open to the ideas Heiji has on where to take Apollo besides Universal. In fact she's downright charmed by how bright her smile is and how open her expression is too. "That sounds like a lovely place to visit, the aquarium. It sounds amazing. I'm sure Apollo will appreciate it since he'll still get a chance to relax but know more things along the way too."

Good for his teaching side, right? She likes to think that's the case. "That's one way to introduce Apollo to nature while still in the city. Maybe, perhaps, whenever you two go there it'll be during the time when the blossoms were in bloom and you could watch it during a... a... What do you call it? Ha-something. That much I'm sure of."

She looks a bit embarrassed for not knowing how to pronounce the name of the tradition. Oh!

"Lack of nutritional value? You watch him eat? Wait a second, he's a lawyer, so why ain't he eating right?" Gosh. Maybe he should watch Apollo eat sometime. Watch him eat and judge.

"Plus, doesn't it seem like he'd like lookin' at fish swimming around?" Around and around and around, so soothing. He laughed. "We'll probably be going this month, so I don't think we'll get a chance to do hanami. But it's definitely real nice in the spring. It's just too bad we can't take you along."

He looked speculatively at Clara. Could they?

"Goodness no!" That sounds so creepy the way it is worded. She shakes her head. "I would never do that.

"I've only seen him shop now and then at this grocery store I like to visit." One of the elderly greeters there happened to be a witch and a friendly one at that. Her talks with him are quite stimulating, honest. "From what I see he only has coffee and maybe a meal to hide his coffee."

The musings of someone else's eating habits aside -- She looks a bit curious at the implied question herself, trying to remember the times she's travelled far.

"Hmm... I never travelled far from London, truth be told . The furthest I've ever been from London was at the very edge of it and that was by pure luck. I wasn't paying much attention at the time." The moment she realised it, she panicked and snapped back into the coffee shop. That's not even factoring in the large body of water they'll need to go over and other things. "If I could be put into something, like hidden in a suitcase, maybe it'll be easier?"

She hopes there are not luggage requirements about ghosts in one's luggage.

"Hmm." Heiji sounded a little disapproving, actually. "I like coffee as much as the next guy, but that can't be healthy. What if he loads himself up with coffee just to get himself through them jobs of his? Maybe it's worth following him around a little more, make sure he's eatin' his vegetables."

He put a hand to his chin, looking thoughtful. "I guess I can think of one way we could do it... but I don't think it'd be all that pleasant. Kinda like travelin' in steerage, yeah? And it's a pretty long trip by plane..."

Plus, could he really ask Clara to put up with being in a confined space for so long? Seemed like a terrible thing to do to a ghost grandma.

(Oh, Apollo. Now there's another person who knows.)

Clara waves her hand at his concern that she'll be uncomfortable with being stuffed next to someone's tube socks, perfectly okay with it.

Really, she's fine.

"I have travelled in steerage before. Or something close to it. Only once, yes, but I have done that. " When coming to London, in fact. To say she's ready for it again is an understatement. "It'll be fine if that's what we need to do. If it's easier on you and Apollo. And, of course, if you two are willing to let me tag along for the ride."

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time for a check up (open post)

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