The situation is grave [Open]

[necromancynow]

A: Faust's clinic, Lambeth:

Patients that had other options did not visit Dr. Faust. His bedside manner was impeccable during the day, of course, and his medical knowledge was near-encyclopedic. But often he looked as though he had not slept in days and there was a strange, distant component to his manner that had been present ever since the loss of his wife some years ago. And his touch, even to ordinary patients not overly sensitive to the supernatural, made the flesh crawl in inexplicable fashion.

But of course there were many patients that did not have other options. Faust opened the door to the waiting room, peeking his head through with a mildly encouraging smile. "Next?"

B: Night visits

Faust was out at the graveyard, peering down into a freshly-dug grave in the Earth. Empty, as of yet, but he preferred bodies that had had time to... settle. He looked over his shoulder at the skeleton trailing behind him. It was carrying a shovel and spade.

"Over on the east side, if you please."

Time to do a little grave robbing.

Wildcard:
Feel free to make up your own! Faust's been in London for a few years and hands out business cards for his clinic on occasion, so your character may have heard of him by reputation :).

Comments

[necromancynow]

"And any deathwatch beetles," Faust agreed, though it was unclear if he was joking or not.

"But what are you doing here? Guarding the graves?" A bit of a complication, Clara's presence. But ghosts could always be....

...dealt with.

[warmheartedly]

Deathwatch beetles? Those don't sound friendly? Are those even ... real? She'll need to ask Heiji or Apollo or someone in the future. Without making them suspicious or worried, of course.

His question makes her think for a second, wondering if she should be honest or lie but she never did like lying so the truth it is. "Not really? I visit here and tend to the graves, yes, but most of the time I visit my own lot nearby. I just think it's a little bit depressing that someone's grave has to be treated like this is all. Isn't there some other way to get the items without--"

Digging things up?

[necromancynow]

"Depressing..." Faust had to think about that one for a second. He'd never really thought of the practice as depressing. Ghoulish, perhaps, when he was younger and had little idea about the way the world worked.

"I personally find it rather soothing work. Repetitive, but satisfying. Every once in a while, you find a surprise. ...But no. Not all things come easily. Especially not the materials I need."

[warmheartedly]

"I see... It won't hurt them, will it? Digging around their resting places?"

It's rather clear that he's going to push through with this no matter how much she tries to needle or explain and there's not much Clara can really do to stop him. Not if she wants to be kept in one piece, that is. Best she can do, maybe, is watch over him and make sure nothing bad happens to them. She would hate for Henrique's job to get more complicated.

[necromancynow]

"Hurt them?" Faust stepped over to an older grave, where a bit of moss had been allowed to creep in. He plucked it from the ground, examined it, and made an unsatisfied noise.

"Why, they are dead and gone. Why should it hurt them?"

While he was talking to Clara, his skeleton buddy had begun wandering off to the east side, where it was now putting the tip of its shovel into the earth above one of the graves.

[warmheartedly]

To be fair that is a good question to ask and, all the same, Clara is floundering to explain her side of it.

"It shouldn't hurt them! Not at all! It's just-- What I mean--" Give herself a second to compose herself while keeping an eye on the skeletons. Can she at least hope his friend there will be digging neatly? "--It's their final resting place is all. I know it seems small but it's where they, their bodies at least, is meant to be."

Be at rest, be at peace. Be kept tucked away in its own corner of the world, undisturbed after hopefully a life's worth of everything. "It feels strange is all to me, to come here to a place where with intentions like this."

She can't help but sigh, "But what do I know of the world that's about magic and skeletons and skeletons using gardening tools? I'm a ghost with my own body nearby, no doubt covered in deathwatch beetles and moss. Eurgh! What a spooky thought."

[necromancynow]

Well... at the very least, the skeleton did seem to be working neatly.

Faust listened, considered. "It happens to everyone, you know. Nothing spooky about it. In fact, it's beautiful in a way. Don't you think? No matter who we were in life, we are all united in the same inevitable end."

"But I do understand, I suppose. If someone was disturbing the bones of my late wife, I would be very... upset." Okay, upset was putting it mildly. But that was why he didn't trust her remains to the cemetary. No, he kept them safe.

[warmheartedly]

There are things she wanted to say to what he said in regards to life and the end and all of that. It's forgotten at the moment, in favour of something else.

Clara covers her mouth, looking both sympathetic and apologetic. "Ah. I... I see. And I'm sorry to hear that. Your wife."

"She must have been a very lovely lady if she knew you, sir. You're quite polite." Considering everything going down at the moment. It's quite impressive, really. Even in the wake of this strange scenario they're in.

[necromancynow]

"She was," sighed Faust. His expression turned faraway as he remembered happier times -- times when he didn't have to go digging through graveyards, certainly.

"The most beautiful woman in the world, my Eliza. We knew each other as children. She was so kind and generous. A little clumsy with the needle, but nobody's perfect. When we were married, it was the happiest time of my life."

[warmheartedly]

She can't help but smile a bit, charmed to hear his words, his devotion to his wife Eliza. "She sounds so lovely from how you describe her."

And she couldn't help but notice that he continued to describe her heavily in the… how did people call it again? The past tense? It makes her rather nervous to ask another question or make a comment about her, afraid to make a mistake because he can control skeletons to dig up graves. She has no clue what else he could do so--

"You two sound like quite a pair. A match made in heaven, don't you think? It's so romantic." That's a safe enough comment, right? Right? She hopes it is.

[necromancynow]

"Yes... I was truly happy." Past tense again. Maybe Clara could tell, but Faust didn't seem particularly happy at present.

"We had a clinic together, a tiny little place near the seaside. But that was a long time ago." He turned back to Clara. "Are you married?"

Or perhaps the better question would be were you married. The vow was 'until death do us part', wasn't it?

[warmheartedly]

She said the wrong thing, she can feel it in her nonexistent bones. "Sounds like a very noble thing to do together."

The question directed to her surprises her a bit but it's easy to talk about her spouse since his passing is arguably peaceful, troubles aside. "I was. Francisco was a bit rough and tumblr at times but he was a good man who meant well.

He's over there," she directs, pointing to the row of tombstones far from here but distinct enough in view due to the care around its plot thanks to her and others looking after it. "Right next to me, see?"

[necromancynow]

Something in Faust's expression shifted slightly as he walked up to the graves and stared at Francisco's headstone. "Is your husband with you as well? In this world, I mean."

He certainly hadn't seen any other ghosts around tonight, so perhaps not.

[warmheartedly]

Her expression falters and she finds it difficult to speak for a second. Funny. Her voice suddenly is hard to find though she has no need for air. Strange, isn't it?

"Um. No. He isn't with me." She looks away, trying to keep up her peppy demeanour but shrugging is hard somehow. Like she doesn't really like to admit that he's-- "Gone. The moment he passed, he passed. This was a few years ago too so if he's around, I would run into by now."

[necromancynow]

"It was the same for my Eliza," Faust said, continuing to gaze at the headstone. "At least, so I believe. At the time, I didn't know much about the supernatural. She could have easily been trying to contact me. But I would have had no idea of knowing."

"I was a man of science." The last word was bitter, sharp. He still believed in medical science, of course, but oh, how blind he'd been. Perhaps if he hadn't spent so long ignoring his heritage, things might have been different...

[warmheartedly]

"I'm so sorry to hear that," she says, not wanting to say anything too radical as she notes at his change of tone. "Um... From my experience, it wouldn't have been too long for you to notice her spirit after... You can see me easily. Unless she's deliberately hiding, one should be able to find her if she has unfinished business."

Or if something happened to her to make her linger in the world. "Would it be rude to ask what...?"

Happened.

[necromancynow]

"She would not hide from me," Faust said immediately. "She wouldn't." Probably best not to poke too deeply into that possibility, as he was becoming visibly agitated just thinking about WHY HIS BELOVED WIFE WOULD EVER HIDE FROM HIM.

"The story is ordinary." On this subject, at least, he seemed to devolve into short, terse sentences that seemed almost bitten off at the ends. "She was in the house at night, alone. I was working late. There was a burglar, who surprised her. He had a pistol with him."

Suddenly, a surge in energy as he raised his voice. "We didn't keep weapons in the house. She was just a nurse! She devoted her life to helping people! And he shot her down like a dog in the street, that filth! That swine! The police did not find him! No one did!"

...Except for Faust, that was.

[warmheartedly]

She's momentarily stunned into silence a the sudden shift of energy and emotions displayed in front of her.

It's like someone turned a switch in the back of his head, his mood shifting from quiet melancholy to... to this. Honestly she's a bit surprised she hasn't snapped back to the coffee shop yet in the wake of this. Maybe because she doesn't want to leave him like this, after he told her such a private thing. He clearly is still feeling the loss of his wife. Scary as it maybe.

"I. I... Oh my God... I'm. I-I'm so sorry." For both his loss and for asking that question. It's all she can think of to say due to both her hesitation to make things worse and her fears of making him angry at her. "That's just awful. For the both of you. I'm sorry for you and for her. It wasn't fair at all."

[necromancynow]

"No," he said, "It wasn't."

The anger drained from his manner, leaving him looking more tired than ever. He could certainly work himself into a lather about the subject if allowed to do so, but Clara's sympathy made him remember the emptiness and loss rather than the anger. He had no tears left to shed over his wife's death, which somehow made things worse.

"But the world is not a fair place, madam. That's what I learned from the experience."

[warmheartedly]

Now that he's no longer scary, Clara is much more inclined to stick around because there is no way she's going to leave him in his state. Skeleton friend nearby or not.

"It isn't fair at times, yes," she admits, "and I'm so sorry for that. Is that why you're here?"

In the cemetery? She finds it difficult to guess what other reasons may bring him here to the graveyards and the tombstones with intentions to get ingredients found only amongst the sleeping and the deceased.

[necromancynow]

"It's the only reason," said Faust. The only reason for anything. For him still being alive, for the practice he runs, for his move to London to gain access to a wider supernatural community.

The skeleton stopped and mimed a tear before examining a shiny-looking rock it had found. This it placed in a little cloth satchel.

"If only I had been there. If only it had been I who had died..."

[warmheartedly]

It makes her wince and desperately wish she had the special ability to know what exactly to say in moments such as these. She's scared to say the wrong thing but saying nothing could be the worse option here.

"Oh! Please don't say that!" Clara doesn't want to say think about your wife since he already is and that's simply being presumptuous and rude. If that can't be said then what can be? Think, Clara, think. "I-- She-- You're trying your best! That's what matters. You're getting ever so closer to it no matter what it looks like now. It may not be right away but soon I'm sure it'll happen, it'll work."

[necromancynow]

"Yes," he said slowly. "That's true. I am getting closer. My research will one day bear fruit, I'm sure of it." Clara: accidentally encouraging necromancers to continue their dark and terrible research.

Faust gave her a little hint of a smile, though the expression seemed a little forced. "Still, I can't help but blame myself. If that man hadn't been convinced he was robbing the home of a wealthy doctor, or even if I hadn't been working so late, things might have been different."

[warmheartedly]

Clara Seville has always been enabling people's terrible motivations and goals since 1951.

"For now the present is what matters since each day will bring you a step closer. I hope it works out for you both," she says, implying his wife. There are a lot of things standing in his way but surely he'll be able to accomplish it. He seems like a determined man. "I wish there was a real way I could help you myself but I'm just a ghost and I was a human, through and through, when still alive."

[necromancynow]

"Just a ghost," Faust echoed. Well. Technically, there were many possible uses for ghosts.

"Have you ever given any thought to your personal salvation resurrection?" Ghosts could possess the living, of course, but not indefinitely. He wondered if Clara had ever longed for solid form, to once again feel the air in her lungs and the sun on her skin.