undergrounds | stop! ghost time (open post)

JULY 21; COFFEERS' SHOP (LATE AFTERNOON)

Clara doesn't always snoop around the city and sometimes her work isn't always needed in the school. Sometimes she likes to stay in the shop. Sometimes she enjoys listening to idle conversation of the customers, not really listening in on them, that'll be rude, but nonetheless enjoying the buzz of activity the shop has during their busiest hours.

And sometimes that isn't enough. That's when she goes over and pokes around the lost and found box, seeing what's there and if anything is something that belongs to a current patron she can give back to without them looking. It's there that she finds a pair of marigold gloves during her search and about them draws her to them... Naturally she reaches out to and concentrates a bit to have a goodish grasp of it to see if there's a nametag anywhere when she notices a peculiar thing:

It feels... solid under her touch, real and tangible without the strange numbness to her fingertips she's become accustomed to at this rate. It takes her a second to realise what this means. She can touch them! She can hold them! She can do it with ease, most importantly of all.

Oh, what an exciting day for her as she mutters one little apology under her breath and zips off to the back of the shop with her new item. Already she has a little million ideas for them popping into mind, the excitement of the discovery along with the possibilities just enough to drown out her guilt for taking something out of the lost and found box that isn't hers.

JULY 25; AROUND THE CITY (ALL DAY)

After the last few days of activity, Clara decides it's time to be both proactive and to use her gloves to her advantage.

She'll now be found in areas that she usually doesn't snoop around in her attempts to glean information: The darker parts of the city, the seedier alleyways of the town, and etc. She'll peek through windows and go through walls, doing her best to stay invisible and quiet as a mouse while going through things with a newfound ease thanks to her gloves. (When she can bear the itching for long as she can, of course. Goodness do they chafe her skin.)

From Haringey to Hackney to Waltham Forest and then some, she'll be exploring and peeping into a lot of people today if she can. It's risky but she does her best. If she's to be a good observer of information, she needs to dig deep and hope she finds some things out, see what's going on in the heart of the city.

[ OOC: Or make your own scenario in your comment! Prose and brackets welcomed! A note, though, is that only one person can step in to help Clara get rid of the medium that she'll run into on July 25.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I thought that too! There's also the possibility that a fae did this themselves. For mischief on how a ghost would react to these sort of things." If one thinks long and hard enough on it, her reasoning somewhat makes sense.

The offer is a bit of a surprise and she seems intrigued by it. He is a doctor after all. What could go wrong? "I see no problem at all! Maybe it can even help you in the long run. If it does, I'll be more than happy to let you take a look at them. Er, to let you know: No one else so far has been able to hold them."

Faust smiled. "Perhaps so. Though I can't imagine it was a very powerful fae, in that case -- they usually have motives beyond simply creating mischief." At least in his experience.

"I would be honored to try and figure out how to hold your gloves," said Faust solemnly. "By the way, would you like to meet my Eliza?"

Is. Is that a trick question?

"I--" On one hand, she feels like she should say no but on the other hand it's rude of her to be here as it is thanks to her earlier intentions. Turning down the offer seems wrong. No matter how much she feels like something may or may not happen. "I-- I would love to meet her if you're really alright with that. Be more than a delight, honestly."

Faust's smile turned into a beam of delight. "I'm so glad you think so! Come along, then, and we'll pay her a little visit."

He got up and headed toward the door. Honestly, this was probably a terrible idea all around considering that he'd said his wife was dead, so where was he even leading Clara? He went down the hall, opened one of the nondescript doors. It opened inward with a bit of a creak, revealing what looked like an autopsy table. The surface of the table was covered with a large blue sheet. And underneath that sheet...

Faust pulled the covering lovingly back from the table, revealing white bone. A skeleton, almost entirely intact save for the large hole prominently featured in the skull, right where the left forehead would have been in life.

He was keeping his wife's skeleton in his office.

That's a...

....

.....

What's this? She hasn't snapped back to the coffee shop yet. That's strange given her past experience. Is she terrified to the point she can't go back out of fear itself? Interesting; she'll keep note of that in the future as she stares at the, um, sight for a few more seconds. In her head she had been expecting maybe picture or an urn. Maybe a piece of her at best for a morbid second. She hadn't expected everything.

"Um. Oh. Right." Staring is rude no matter the circumstances and this is his residence. What could she say though? "This is her. I see. It's-- It's an honour to meet her proper."

She hopes that was polite enough because she isn't sure what else to say here. This means a lot to him, showing Eliza to someone after what's happened, but her mind is honestly at a blank here on what could be said. Besides asking if this is in line with health code regulations or not. (There's a strong chance that is isn't but she doesn't know anything of medical things so she's going to trust Faust on this.)

Faust touched the skeleton's skull gently, even tenderly. After a moment, he bent down and gave its forehead a kiss. Probably it was best if no one asked him how he obtained his wife's skeleton. Or when.

"One day," he said. "We'll be reunited. I know it."

Okay Faust. Awesome.

He turned to Clara. "I need to ask you something, Mrs. Seville. You know what my wife looks like. You know how important she is to me. I met someone recently -- someone who said they could help. She said that my wife might be wandering somewhere, or... or there might be another problem. Some reason I can't contact her, some reason I don't know her real name. I can look into that. But if she's wandering somewhere around London, I'd have no way to search for her. You, though... you're a ghost. Surely you must know things. Ways to look that I don't have. Would you..."

Faust swallowed, his voice thick with emotion. "Would you help me?"

"Find her real name?" He must mean her full name. That explains why he hasn't been able to contact her during his attempts. "Ah. That's quite a feat, truth be told. We'll need to find not only her full name but learn how she pronounced it herself…"

Oh dear, oh dear. This escalated faster than she would have imagined.

Originally meant to be spying for someone, she finds herself being offered to help another person with something more achievable, perhaps, but she can't have a nervous feeling in her gut over it. She doesn't know a lot about magic but something like this will be demanding more than a proper name and an agreeable spirit.

"--Of course." Yet she'll agree to it. There is no way she'll be able to live with herself if she turned him down after all she's known here. "I'll do my best to help you find her name. That's the best I can do, however, since I'm rather limited in everything else.

"And I hope you'll be alright with me asking a friend to help me out. We'll both be discreet, I promise. Two ghosts are better than one after all."

"Two ghosts...?" Well, two was better than one, right?

"If you think you can trust them." He paused. "I may have a lead. Can you and your friend meet me at the cemetery? You know the one. I can give you the details there. I need to make some... preparations."

"I trust her with all my heart." Aradia saved her life once. Surely she can help bring back a life too. That's the same, right?

When he mentions the cemetery, she can't help but furrow her brow and frown. "You'll need to be careful of the groundskeeper then. He's been rather testy ever since the incident but we'll meet there if that's where you want to go.

"... What sort of preparations if I can ask?" Because that pause did not soothe her concerns, honestly.

He smiled. "Why, preparations to summon my wife, of course!" ...And other things.

"Spells like that do require their own set of materials, you know. Thank you, madam. If this works... no, when this works, I'll be very grateful."

And wouldn't it be super wonderful to have the gratitude of someone like Faust? Of course it would.

"O-Of course. I should have known that." She got that much but how exactly will he do that is what concerns her the most. Long as it doesn't involve a living a person, she thinks this offered process will be relatively painless.

But, for the meantime, she'll take what she can get from this situation for his sake and believe him. "I hope your ingredients aren't all found in a cemetery! The poor groundskeeper of mine is still seething a bit over the incident. Please be careful when you go there. He's on the look out."

Much as she cares for Henrique and his steady dedication, she also doesn't want him to get hurt and Faust is clearly on a mission.

stop! ghost time (open post)

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