undergrounds | The situation is grave [Open]

Entry tags:

The situation is grave [Open]

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 :).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

"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?

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?"

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.

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."

"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...

"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.

"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.

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."

"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."

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.

"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..."

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."

"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."

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."

"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.

~~FaUST PLEASE.~~

"… A lot of times," she admits, looking a bit forlorn before she tries to perk herself up. "I later learned that you had to do a lot of, erm, dealings with fae and others though. It might not always work out for me too. The last thing I heard of a method to come back involved a life exchange, a large group of witches and a fae helping out! Sounds rather too complicated for me."

Which makes sense. She supposes that's the price of trying to reverse one of the natural part of life.

Better to be safe than sorry. No matter how much she wants to be able to feel sunshine again. (She would miss being able to phase through things. It is a fun thing to do when she was bored.)

Faust nodded; in this world, you rarely if ever got something for nothing. And certainly not in necromancy.

"It's a complex ritual. And of course, much can go wrong..." Like your sacrifice breaking free and running for it, for instance. HOW INCONVENIENT.

But he did know a few like-minded witches. Witches who might cooperate in exchange for a little information...

"I wonder if my wife would feel the same way. But I have no way of talking with her."

"Not even a seance with her name being called out?" She wonders if she's still here on this realm but, given the circumstances of her demise, it should be a strong possibility. "That always had me drawn out in the past by people looking for me."

It also made her much easier to find in the person's attempts to shoo her into passing but there's no need for such distressing details like that. "I'm sure, either way, there's a very strong chance that she's touched by your dedication and drive to bring her back. That's commitment."

"I know how to perform summonings. I've done it before. But my own wife? Nothing." Now he drooped a little. "Each time, I think it will go differently. Gathering up the materials, making my preparations. Calling her name. But perhaps she's simply beyond my reach."

For now.

That does sound very strange. It makes her frown, trying to think of any reasons why it'll be so hard to contact her spirit. Maybe she's really gone but, at the very least, communication with her from the other side should be possible.

Right? She'll need to ask someone about this later.

"Only for now! I'm sure you'll be able to speak with her soon!" Stay positive! That's Clara's advice even in the wake of a man trying to bring back his missing love. Yeah. "I hope this doesn't sound redundant but maybe you can also try her full name and her special nickname if you had one for her? Just a thought. Maybe I'm speaking nonsense to you."

"Her special nickname..." The way Faust repeated the words was distant, as if he were struggling to regain memories of some long-forgotten time. Or perhaps struggling not to remember.

Suddenly, he buried his face in his hands, slumping a little where he stood. He still remembered tiny details about her, little snippets of memories that came less and less frequently to the fore as the years passed. But when they did surface, they were more than he could stand. Her favorite flower, the way she sipped at her tea. The dress she'd bought and never worn.

"I miss her so."

Edited 2015-08-03 17:11 (UTC)

Oh God. Oh God. How does she-- What if he-- There are no words to describe the level of alarm she feels for him. Panicking a bit, Clara is at loss at firston how to respond. Clearly she said something wrong and feels awful for since he needs to deal with the repercussions of it.

Poor man has been through so much as it is and it makes her heart go out for him.

Enough to have her drift closer to see if there's a way to comfort him while the skeleton continues to do his work out of the corner of her eye. She pays them no heed despite her reasons being here in the first place, wanting to help the man here somehow.

She doesn't touch him just yet, having no clue of his stance on personal space and wanting to be careful, and tries to suss it out carefully. "I'm. I'm sorry. It must be very hard to be in your position. I'm so sorry, I am."

Faust took a moment to try and get himself back under control, to somehow fit the overspill of emotion safely back into place. "I know. Thank you."

He took a deep, sighing breath. "Sometimes it's the small things that make me remember. Then it's as if it happened yesterday. They told me it's supposed to get easier with time. But it never does."

Then he looked back up at Clara. "You're very kind, you know."

"It doesn't from my experience," she observers, recalling the few (and too many) times that it's happened in the past. "The most I can really say about it is that, sooner or later, you'll be able to not cry most of the time when they come to mind."

His comment takes her by surprise and she blinks, needing a moment to respond to that. "Ah... Thank you? I was just hoping you're okay is all. Others would do the same thing if they were here, I'm sure."

The situation is grave [Open]

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)