undergrounds | Dear Eliza [for Clara, Aradia, Liam, and Mab]

Faust had asked that Clara meet him at a familiar place: somewhere quiet where there was not much chance of them being interrupted. And what better place to carry a thing like that out but a cemetery?

He waited in the early morning at a corner of the same cemetery at which they'd first met, hopefully avoiding any confrontations with Enrique in the process.

Explaining this situation to Aradia was a little bit difficult. Finding Aradia to explain it in the first place was even more difficult since it's been a while but she managed both, able to track her fellow ghost down at long last to tell her what's going on.

"There he is!" Of course he'll be nearish to the grave where they had first met here. That makes the most sense to do.

Clara turned to face Aradia and thinks perhaps it was best to make some introductions first before they go any further. "Um! Doctor Faust, this is my friend Aradia. She'll be helping us.

Aradia, this is Doctor Faust. The one I spoke of and who needs a hand or two pairs."

Aradia hadn't minded offering her spare time when Clara finally tracked her down. Only knowing the basics of the situation wasn't really a deal breaker - finding things was fun and makes for decent manifesting practice, and she could always try to pry further details out of Clara's mysterious friend if things start looking shady. And if Clara trusted them, then they clearly couldn't be that bad.

Right? Right. Flawless logic.

"Hope you don't mind that I came with. She thought I could help out a little." Meeting in a graveyard at an absurdly early hour doesn't even rate as surprising anymore, though she does note that maybe Clara didn't tell the stranger beforehand that Aradia'd be joining them. Oops. "At least as far as a ghost can, anyway. But I can go if that's a problem."

Might as well offer a way for her to leave, even if she's oddly curious about where this could head. It's only polite.

Faust smiled at Aradia. What a nice young ghost. He was sure he could trust Clara despite only meeting her a few days ago, this sounded like an excellent idea and not like questionable judgment at all.

"Aradia. Pleased to meet you. As Clara mentioned, I'm Faust. And I'm trying to track down the spirit of my late wife. I... someone suggested to me recently that I might not know her real name. Her true name. I can't imagine why she would have kept something like that from me. But the truth of the matter is she's the only ghost I haven't been able to contact."

The hand at his side tightened slightly with emotion as he spoke. "I may have a lead. Eliza had an uncle living in London -- Meinke Heinemann. He may know her name, even if I don't. I'd like to ask for your help in tracking him down."

Clara thinks she did tell beforehand but she isn't too sure now thanks to all the whirlwind activities of late. So it doesn't hurt to be sure and it's a good thing too. She smiles at the introductions, relieved to see it's going well and then her smile is replaced by a look of surprise to hear that's there a lead.

If Aradia looks over her, she'll see that she didn't have a clue about this. It's a good thing of course. Makes their searching much more easier to do.

"Mr. Me- Mine- Mr. Mi-- Mr. Eliza's uncle. Of course." Fingers crossed that neither noticed her flubbing the last name. Her English has improved over the years but not that much, sadly. She hopes Aradia is able to pronounce that name properly. It could prove crucial if they want the full proper name. "We'll be more than to happy to help since you're open to the idea. Did you know him personally? If we knew what he was like, it'll be easier to find him. If not, well, we can always improvise."

Surely nothing will go wrong if they do that. Besides possible angry/scared uncles.

No questionable decisions here. Clearly everything happening today could accurately be called Good Life Choices without any lies ever.

Aradia listens politely through the explanation - odd circumstances aside, the plan seems normal enough and not that different then the medium favours she did while alive. And she's always a sucker for helping people's relatives find peace, though the lead's name could end up being a problem with both of them being jittery over the pronunciation.

"Mr. Heinemann--" she's not even going to try that first name unless she has to, "--can't be that hard to find between the two of us. Someone's bound to know him. Though it would help if you've got an idea of where to start."

She steals a glance at Clara, wanting to gauge how her friend was feeling about the situation. Seeing the normally wiser ghost visibly clueless was... not reassuring. Welp.

"Not very well," said Faust. "Actually, though he and Eliza were fairly close, he never really took a liking to me. Odd, isn't it?" Maybe this actually was a little odd, as back then, Faust hadn't been such a trainwreck. He wondered if Meinke would recognize him. Probably not.

"In any case, I haven't been in contact with him since before my wife's death. He may even have moved. But I hope not." For his benefit, as well as theirs. "When I knew him, he was a man of medium height. Receding hair, blond. Light blue eyes. I remember he showed up to one Christmas wearing a terrible sweater. Just terrible. Green, with little prancing reindeer..."

Faust was getting a little off topic. GOOD LUCK GUYS.

Clara relaxed enough. Now and then she'll look around to make sure the groundskeeper isn't making his rounds just yet. Otherwise? She looks a little worried which could be chalked up to nerves and Aradia can probably bet on that is isn't the case. At all.

It-- It's not like she wants to seem clueless of all times now but it's either to look clueless or look petrified for what may happen next and Clara decided clueless isn't that alarming to show compared to petrified. She hadn't gone out of her way to explain the full version of events that lead up to this. Maybe when everything has settled down there'll be time to explain it more in-depth. She's sure Aradia will find the story of her meeting the skeletal remains of Faust's beloved wife interesting at best.

That only happens when it is all said and done which may take a little while. That's not a lot to go on and she wrinkles her nose in deep thought, trying to rack her brain on where a man of that description may go to.

She looked at Aradia now, a few ideas in mind, knowing they'll have to do this on their own if Faust had no personal connection with the man. "Do you think we can hedge our bets and look around bars and taverns and listen to gossip over a M-Mine- Oh! Listen to gossip over him or hear his name being yelled? It's rather unique, I have to say."

Aradia had tuned Faust's rambling out when he started describing the man's sweater, of all things - the basic picture was enough to help narrow down whatever leads they manage to turn up. Which is about as far as her detecting skills normally stretch but the rest can't be that hard to pick up as they go, right?

The fact that there's already the beginnings of A Plan only fuels the younger ghost's enthusiasm, her prior worry over Clara's unease already forgotten. Between the two of them, they're bound to find something worthwhile, especially when they can go places that humans like Faust can't. "And if that fails it's not like we can't poke around town ourselves. Or start questioning people. It's as good a place to start as any, and that way we can find out where to go next."

This was going to be fun. London beware, the ghosts are loose.

"Anything you could do would be helpful," said Faust. He fished a note out of his pocket, held it out with a slightly tremulous hand. Oh, great. It was in vampire territory.

"This is the last address I have for him. Perhaps it might be of help...?"

GOOD LUCK GUYS.

"That would be wonderful!" What luck for her and Aradia. "That should narrow our line of searching quite a bit! Hopefully it's a place where he sticks out like a sore thumb."

Maybe he even still has his sweater! It sounds too cute to throw away.

Clara took the note after a moment's pause to concentrate enough to hold the note. When she opens it and reads the address, the way her nose scrunched up at the location said it all: It was in a place she was not comfortable with for some reason but she still looked optimistic. It wasn't too far from safe territory so if anything happened, they could phase back for safety. She showed it to Aradia in hopes of getting her opinion on the place since the vampires there didn't exactly try to hide its nests.

Either way these ghosts are on the case. Electrical appliances and people who like being warm, fear for yourselves.

She peers over Clara's shoulder while the latter holds the note - it's easier that way, with how bad her manifesting is and oh, she knows that patch of town. Or she knows it's reputation back when she was alive, since she's not entirely sure how much has changed. Clara gets a wince, and the sight of Aradia struggling to come up with something positive about the location for the sake of a possibly-still-listening Faust. "At least we're safer then most would be?"

Ghosts don't have blood, so clearly they'll be useless to vampires and therefor not worth notice. It'd make sense, even if vampires are also one of the few things perfectly capable of seeing them. Welp.

Normally she'd immediately dash off now that she has a goal, but that feels... awkward, in a situation like this. So instead she waits, picking through words in her head for what to say, eventually settling on an awkward smile for Faust. "I can't really promise we'll find him, but... hopefully we will! Or at least find something to help, at least. The address definitely helps though."

"Thank you again," said Faust, who thankfully could not hear Clara's comments about sweaters. "Truly." And if he did get his hands on that shrinking, shirking relative of Eliza's, why, God help him.

Should Clara and Aradia head over to the address, they'd find a run-down apartment building in Islington, which looked as though it housed perhaps seven occupants at a maximum. The shrubbery looked like it was dying -- if, that is, it wasn't already dead. The mailbox was overstuffed, but when a woman came out of the front door, she shoved a letter or two into one of the slots.

"Keep telling them that weird German guy doesn't live here any more. Ought to just march down Bachman myself and shove these in his face. No respect for people's time."

Confident that a warm and welcoming and totally non-traumatising family reunion between the uncle and nephew-in-law is close at hand, off she and Aradia went.

It didn't take long for them to track the address down and she almost wishes it wasn't that easy. This place gave Clara the spooks thanks to its appearance and its location, making her leery as she and Aradia made their way to the apartment complex. It has seen better days. Maybe when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth, perhaps.

Before she can ask Aradia if she sees anything of interest, Clara jumped at the sudden appearance of the angry woman bursting out of the front door. She composes herself long enough to catch snippets of the angry rant and of course it won't be that easy for them.

"Bachman..." She tried to recall where, or who, that is and it is coming up a blank for her. Maybe the letters will be of interest to them, possibly overdue bills or not. "Aradia-- Do you know where or what Bachman is?"

Aradia, meanwhile, stays relatively chipper on the way through Islington. There's rarely an excuse for her to venture this far past the Thames, so there's a fair share of wide-eyed staring and random observation - how some buildings feel like they're barely standing, idle musings on the few signs of obvious vampire-dom around, that sort of thing. It's best to make the most of the situation, right?

Her prattling trails off when they arrive, as the woman's arrival startles her just as much as it does Clara. The all-too-familiar sound of a lamppost's light dying across the street is proof of that, even if Aradia herself scrambles to maintain visual composure, damnit not again. Oops. "Doesn't ring a bell, honestly. Maybe the letters could help?"

Now's not the time to regret sleeping through highschool classes. Or have considerations for privacy, apparently, if her immediate darting over to the mailbox is any indication. If her hands co-operate long enough, she's got ideas of prying out a letter or two to see the address. "O-or one of us could try talking to that lady, maybe she's one of the ones who can hear...?"

One or two of the letters were addressed to an M. Heinemann, though these were battered and one of them had an angry screed written on them in spidery script about how the old guy had moved, so why did they keep delivering his letters to her address? She'd told them again and again that he'd gone and it escaped her why they couldn't just --

"Well, I say," said a mustachioed, red-headed man with a camera about his neck. He was dressed in what looked like safari clothes, with a pair of binoculars around his neck. "Ghosts! After all this time searching, and the end up on my front doorstep! So to speak. Ha ha!"

He had a rather large, gleaming pair of teeth that did not look entirely real.

This is not what she expected at all; someone spotting them while they were here. Oh! Why? How? Who?

Clara looks at Aradia with an apologetic look on her face as if to say, I'm sorry for anything that may happen next here. I really am sorry for it.

"Um-- Hello there." She gives a polite smile, a bit nervous but doing her best to come across as affable. Might as well try her best to be friendly to the person who can apparently see them. Judging from his teeth he could be just a really old vampire considering where they are. Maybe. He could also be a witch with poor dental hygiene.

What she's definitely hoping from him is that he's around these parts and they can get information for Faust's missing relative. "I'm Clara and this is my friend. We're, ah, looking for someone who used to be here. We mean no harm. Isn't that so?"

On one hand, the stranger looks completely harmless. On the other, he also looks completely ridiculous.

Aradia looks up from the letters, staring in disbelief at the newcomer and biting back her first idea for a reply for Clara's sake. She doubts he's as friendly as Clara wants to believe, truth be told, as people who go out searching for ghosts usually don't mean well - but with an outfit like that it's hard for her to take him seriously. Who'd even dress like that if they wanted to trick people, honestly.

But if Clara wanted to ask him questions, then... it couldn't hurt to play along. It might even work out in their favour. "And I'm Aradia. We're just trying to find some stuff out, really, but it's pretty hard for ghosts like us."

There's a pause, as Aradia considers what the man said and winces when something occurs to her. "Sorry if this was your mailbox or something. I should've asked first."

"Find stuff out?" This seemed to give the stranger pause. "Would you say that you're on an expedition?"

From the eager way he leaned forward, bushy moustache twitching, he hoped that this was indeed the case. "No harm done, Aradia my girl! You can call me Cedric! Cedric Boysenberry, Esq.! This is not my mailbox! Although it might -- no, no. I say, since we're both here in the neighborhood, and we're both explorers of a sort, perhaps I could help you out! What is it that you're investigating, pray tell?"

Thank goodness it isn't his mailbox. She didn't want her to get in trouble in vampire territory. The information she'll find there will no doubt give them a little clue about the man they're looking for. Better than nothing, right?

Definitely after this. It's a good thing we're intangible, Clara can't help but think as she 'hops' back when he moves closer. No worry of awkward contact oh no.

"Um-- We're simply looking for an acquaintance of ours. There's urgent news that concerns him that we need to tell him." What she's doing isn't lying to a man. Oh no. It's telling the truth in a rather obscure and vague way. That's the truth, friend. It's the only possible way to keep a straight face without looking guilty. "It seems he isn't here anymore though! Looks like he forgot to send us his address when he moved."

How he knows two lady ghosts and how he's expected to inform them of his move is a little bit of a stretch but anything is possible when someone is (un)dead.

Aradia can't quite fight down a giggle at Clara's creative usage of the truth, though she can't really blame her. Telling the outright truth in a situation like this would probably end poorly, especially given how little information the two actually have. But perhaps, what's worse is the younger ghost's shock is quickly giving way to enthusiasm again, barely caring when Cedric cheerfully invades their personal space. It is still somewhat of an adventure, and she did miss exploring things... oh dear.

"We don't know where to start other then here, unfortunately! So I guess that kind of makes it an expedition?" And there goes the beginnings of a grin, as her tension slowly bleeds away. Shenanigans: Aradia's one true weakness. "But if you know anything that'd help, it'd really be appreciated. Er, Mr. Cedric. Sir."

The man's name gets awkwardly tacked on as an afterthought, Aradia growing distracted over trying to maintain her part of the conversation while hopefully staying tangible enough to hold the letters - which is harder then it looks, especially after the lonely month she had in July. Manifesting was never her strong point.

"Goodness gracious! Any clues, then? I assume those letters are for your friend?" Cedric was getting excited now (he was always excited) at the thought of lending a hand to two ghost ladies in need.

"Why, I haven't been in the area long, but I could surely help you two look!" Windfall from an old departed aunt, perhaps? Either way, Cedric seemed willing to help. His binoculars jangled about his neck as if in agreement.

There are times she can be honest. There are also times she can be just like anyone else: Sneaky when she needs to be, effective when the time is right. Thank goodness luck is on their side today.

"They are! We thought it'll give us a clue to where he is now. They eeem to be only bills and notices." She thinks. Clara looks over at Aradia for clarification over her statement but she believes there's a good chance it's overdue bills and final notices. She's seen that angry red ink and stamp across the paper many times when still dealing with utility rates in her apartment.

At the very least the papers should give them his full name. That'll give them an idea of Mrs. Eliza's possible name itself if he's from her father's side.

"If it isn't too much of a bother to you sir-- Have you seen him? He would have been noticeable in this part of town. Germanic features. Around in his... mid to late 50s or so." A guess from what she remembers of the picture of Eliza when she was in Faust's office, adding a few years here and there.

Dear Eliza [for Clara, Aradia, Liam, and Mab]

The Search (for Clara and Aradia)

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