Welcome to Gaia! ::

Faust nodded slowly, and then continued towards the house, trusting Netsubo to follow. The Baltic Sea stretched away from the cliff, the waves thrashing uneasily below in the darkness. Once at the door, he proceeded to knock five times, softly, inoffensively.

"Don't look," Faust whispered. "It's a very, very, long way down... and there are rocks... you would only survive if you were very, very unlucky."

A little girl of about four years old answered the door, looking first at Netsubo, and then craning her neck to see Faust. "Mommy!" she called in a shrill voice, "It's a girl! And the man from the newspaper. A ghost, because the newspaper said he hit his head and died!"

Two wide-eyed boys peeked out from the behind the kitchen door, and a man charged down the staircase. "Who are you?!" he shouted, pointing a rifle at Faust and Netsubo. "What are you doing on our property?"

"What's going on, Wilhelm?" a woman asked. She was holding a plate that she'd been wiping clean, but when she saw the people at the door she dropped it; it shattered on the tile.

"See, Mommy! A ghost!" the little girl said, tugging on her mother's shirt.

"Mein Gott, Wilhelm! Put down the gun!" the woman cried. "You're alive?" she asked, mystified, as she stared at Faust. "How on earth did you survive that?"

Faust swallowed. "I was very unlucky," he said quietly.

"Please... please, come in," the woman said softly. "You must be so confused. Did you know that your house had been liquidated? It was the nicest house we could get at its price, no one else wanted it because of the Tragedy, and then... and then your fall. Too much sorrow, you understand... please, you and your friend must stay for dinner. You look half-starved, the both of you..."

((kk! smile ))

Faust glanced quickly at her, and then nodded. There were unspoken rules about German hospitality. The little girl poked Faust's leg persistently. "Mommy, he feels like a person!" she said loudly. "Not like a ghost at all! But he sure is bony!"

"Elise! Stop that!" the mother said in a harsh whisper. "But it is true," she said, glancing up at the stranger, "That you are Dr. Faust?"

Faust nodded somberly. "It's true," he said. "Unfortunately... I'm so sorry to disturb you..."

"No! You poor man, I can only imagine how disturbed you must be! You come home to find a family living in your place! If we had known..." she trailed off. "Where have you been, for two decades?"

((lol, it's OK! I'm actually writing a paper, so it worked out fine. And... geesh! I don't know! What should she call him? In the manga, even Eliza calls him Faust! xD ))

"Here and there..." Faust answered vaguely, obviously hoping the same thing.

"Wait!" the father said angrily, striding forward. "I don't know where you've been, but it doesn't take a genius to get the gist of it. I work in a rehab facility... I know your kind and what they look like. Even if you are who you say... that man was a psychopath. I don't want my children near someone like that!" he looked at Netsubo. "And who the hell is that?"

"My wife," Faust replied quietly.