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

[ B ]

[warmheartedly]

Please do not mind the very distressed ghost of an elderly woman peering from behind the tombstone; Clara watches the duo go dangerously close to a patch of tombstones that she cares for personally, her eyes so very wide.

Not her family's plot, thank goodness, but she stills feel worry for the poor patch so she moves closer to get a better look and--

--Wait. Is that a shovel and a spade in the skeleton's grasp?!

"Excuse me!" Emboldened now, she rushes forward to try and stop the two from whatever on earth they're trying to do because whatever they're trying to do is something she's going to try and stop them from doing. "Can you hear me? Of course they can. Please stop!"

[necromancynow]

Faust paused, turned. A ghost, was it?

"Good evening, madam. Is something wrong?" Aside from him being two steps away from disturbing these graves, anyway. The skeleton at his side rattled politely in greeting, performing a little bow in Clara's general direction.

[warmheartedly]

She didn't expect them -- him -- to be so polite. Maybe rude to give her cause, hopefully. Not polite, definitely. It gives her pause to find the right words. Seconds earlier she had been almost willing to use her stern voice but not anymore.

"I'm not sure of that actually," she admits to him, "Which is why I want to ask what you're trying to do here with your, ahhh, friend."

[necromancynow]

"Oh... yes..." Faust gave Clara a smile that would have been very charming if it didn't look as though he hadn't slept in a week. "I'm just gathering some research ingredients. Are one of these graves yours?"

That's why he thought Clara was being a bit sharp about his presence: she didn't want him to disturb her grave.

[warmheartedly]

Now she's staring to feel bad for being a tad sharp at him when she notices his state. The poor man looks like he could use a good rest or five with how he's going. Maybe she should let him b--

No! Clara!

"My grave? No, not at all. None of them are mine, it's somewhere here but! That's not the point. Those graves are someone's, period! It's not polite to go snooping at their graves like that." There are some lines when it comes to snooping, she thinks. Graves and bathrooms are some of them in her 'to never peek' list.

[necromancynow]

Snooping. Yes. That was what he'd been doing, definitely not about to dig up their graves and grab all the goodies inside. Definitely not.

"Polite or not," Faust said, a bit apologetically for Clara's sake, "I'm afraid graves are the only place where I can find my... materials."

What kind of materials...

[warmheartedly]

What kind of materials…

She knows it's rude but she can't help but look at his bony buddy, her frown taking on a more sharper quality to it when a rather uncomfortable idea comes to mind. "It isn't the… the occupants themselves, is it?"

Please tell her that it isn't. Because that'll be more than rude, for sure. It's possibly illegal, whatever this is?

[necromancynow]

Faust smiled dreamily. "Sometimes, when they feel like getting up. There are mosses... mushrooms..."

And things that grew under the earth. Things that liked the cool damp.

[warmheartedly]

Alright... Alright... She calms down a little bit, hearing that there are other things he's here for besides the obvious things a cemetery can give besides cool marble and half-wilted flowers on the markers.

"And tonight? You're looking for the moss and fungus around there, I take it?"

[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.

B

[entitles]

"Goodness, now this is interesting," Balem said, peering curiously at the skeleton.

He didn't seem afraid or disgusted or anything that one might expect, but he is curious. Although Balem looked human enough, in the dark of night the starlight glinted off his eyes and made them shine, almost like a cat's.

[necromancynow]

Faust could sense Balem's power, even if he didn't know for certain who or what he was. He turned; the skeleton mimicked the gesture.

"Oh... forgive my manners. I didn't know we had company." Faust removed the wide-brimmed hat he wore -- the night air got a little chilly at times -- and gave Balem a little bow.

"I don't think we've met. My name is Faust."

[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."

[entitles]

"Indeed, we have not," he said, "Call me Cephei."

Fake name, enough of a tell for those in the know that he was fae. But given the walking skeleton, Balem assumed that this man had plenty of contact with the supernatural world already.

"Is this a hobby of yours?" he said, referring to the apparent grave-robbing going on.

[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]

"Not so much a hobby as a necessity," said Faust, smiling fondly. Presumably at some stray thought rather than at Balem, who he'd only just met. "My work requires many unconventional ingredients. It would be much more convenient if I could simply purchase them... but I suppose the particular manner in which they must be obtained offends the sensibilities."

Not the skeleton's though; it had graduated right on to doing the graveyard shuffle over to a tombstone, where it began to pick at the hard earth.

"I suppose congratulations are in order. I heard that you and your friends have expanded their territory a bit." He was just guessing, but it seemed reasonable that Balem could be fae. Not one of those little pondskipper amateur witches, that was for sure.

[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?"