☂️ All you sinners stand up

[hellogoodhigh]

WHO: The Hargreeves + Guests
WHERE: Various Cities
WHEN: Month of September
WHAT: Mass log of idiots to keep from flooding others. A log for all things Hargreeves, their Adventures, and those trying to befriend them.
WARNINGS: Obligatory CW for: drugs, alcohol, mentions of death and child abuse.

Comments

[anathemic]

Anathema stands at the back, arms crossed and watching the one-sided exchange, assessing it. But as she concentrates on the empty seat, the more and more she can see that hazy figure taking shape: not as crystal-clear as Klaus can see her, it's muddied like she's looking at Mary through fog, but eventually she can make sense of it. Hear that soft whisper on the very edge of her hearing, where it rings through sharp and clear for Klaus.

He really is good at seancés, then.

"Can Mary hear me?" she asks. "If she can, or if you can tell her: I'm sorry I didn't realise you were here."

[hellogoodhigh]

"She can hear you." Klaus is resisting every instinct to go bolting out the door. Now that he's seen the bruising around her throat, the blood under her nails, he knows that she's experienced a traumatic death. It isn't as gruesome as some that he's seen, but he's waiting for the other shoe to drop. For her to start crying for revenge, for one more chance at life, to ask him why, why, why....

"No one's realized I'm here. There isn't exactly a grave marker in the basement with my bones." Mary quips, idly attempting to pick up a card, and frowning as they remain unchanged.

"O-Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Um. Do you... want them moved?"
"No, I'm quite comfortable here. You meet the most interesting people."

Slowly, Mary stands, and when she approaches, Klaus can't help the flinch. One step back, then another as the woman approaches, giving him an evaluatory look.
"Although I must say, you're the first who's actually been able to hear me."
"Yeah, I'm... lucky like that."
"Are you a spiritualist, then? A proper medium?"
"Something like..."
"Good. Perhaps you can convey my message to the young woman who works here."

Klaus looks at Anathema, then back to Mary.
"She, uh, she has a message for you."

[anathemic]

It's fascinating watching the procedure: it's something like what Madame Tracy described of her work back home, but so much more real and genuine. Anathema doesn't doubt for one second that Klaus is actually talking to a spirit, and so she remains quiet, respectful, while their conversation goes on.

Only to jolt as the man looks at her. A hand splayed against her chest; a sort of who, me?

"Go ahead."

[hellogoodhigh]

Mary is circling him- circling them both, like she’s sizing up some competition. It makes Klaus afraid, and he finds himself stepping back again, closer to Anathema. He expects Mary to jump him, to slide into his skin and push his mind back into his bones and use his body, his mouth, his skin to make herself alive again.

Properly conjuring? Channeling spirits like that? Terrified him.

“There is an old crystal ball hidden inside the wall of the basement, along with a scrying crystal and two cups of fate in a tea chest. It would be my pleasure if someone who knows what they’re doing would use them. Just make sure not to disturb the Mistress’s amulet- it gives my bones some comfort.”

She turns away, back to her cards, humming some old song, and Klaus nearly feels like collapsing.

yours to wrap? :>

[anathemic]

She'd inadvertently steeled herself for whatever message was coming -- it's not every day you get a missive from beyond the literal grave -- but once she hears what it is, Anathema relaxes again. It's benign, innocuous. So she nods somberly. "Absolutely. It'd be my pleasure, Mary."

But then as they finish, she feels-and-hears more than sees Klaus stagger; the slight slip of a step, a wavering on his feet, and her hand instantly snaps out and catches his bony shoulder. (It's narrow, sharp. This guy needs to eat better.) She steers him firmly into one of the overstuffed armchairs, not really giving him much of a choice before he collapses into its cushions.

"Alright. So that's decided: you're certainly the real deal." She surveys him, hands on hips. She hasn't fully made up her mind on whether or not to give him the job -- but at least this is a start.

And god, but he looks rough after that summoning.

"Cup of tea?"

End I think?

[hellogoodhigh]

Klaus doesn't know why it's so terrifying. Why being right there at the brink, face to face with a ghost that hadn't laid a finger on him, that hadn't even touched him, has him shaking. His hands and shoulders are quaking with the remains of the adrenaline leaving his body, and he feels like he's going to collapse, like he's going to be sick.

Breathe.

"Y-yeah, tea would be nice."

Breathe.

He exhales slowly and closes his eyes and tries to remember Jan and Zoya and all the others. They had been angry, furious, but not at him. They hadn't tried to hurt him. They had wanted to hurt Hazel, and Cha-Cha. And Jan was so kind, like someone's grandpa in a movie, resigned to his death but happy at least his wife had been spared.

Maybe Mary was like that, too.

"She's really adamant about her bones not being moved. I think she likes it here."

And maybe he would, too.

👍

[anathemic]