Percy Blakeney is not your everyday nincompoop (demnedproudofit) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-08-23 18:35:00 |
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As much as Marguerite loved performing, early morning exhaustion in the midst of a run was fairly common. But she had yoga that morning, which meant that she had to get up earlier than she usually would. No matter, once she had her coffee she would be fine and get into her morning routine. The first thing though of course was coffee.
Kissing Percy’s cheek before getting out of bed, Marguerite put on her Chinese style robe over her slip nightgown and made her way out to the kitchen, not really paying attention to her surroundings at the moment. Her focus at the moment was just making the coffee and then she would worry about other things such as weather or if there was some Orange County thing that decided to start up or if the world had imploded yet.
Perhaps if she’d been more aware of her surroundings, Marguerite would have been prepared for what she saw when she walked out into the living room, coffee in hand. As it were though, the actress was just about to take a sip of her coffee when she saw it.
Percy’s head. On the mantelpiece.
Between the fact that she hadn’t had her coffee yet, and that it had thrown her, Marguerite wasn’t making the connection that Percy had his head when she left the bedroom, or the fact that she had gone through the dreams and knew it wasn’t real. No. In her sleep addled mind, that was Percy’s head and so she let out a startled cry of shock as she dropped her mug of coffee.
Percy was feeling that his dreams were coming to a climactic end. And he was not proven wrong, at least as far as saving Armand went. He really liked how that fake head had turned out. It definitely bore quite the resemblance to him, so much so that it fooled pretty much everyone and allowed him to make his move and put an end to Chauvelin.
He didn’t quite wake up as Marguerite got up, but he had become aware of the fact she’d gotten out of bed. But when she let out the cry of shock and he heard the mug crash to the floor, Percy was completely awake. He sat upright, checking the bedroom before flinging the covers aside and padding out to see what had happened. He was clad in boxers and a t-shirt, his hair a bit of a mess.
“Marguerite? What’s wrong?” He asked as he found her. Then his gaze followed to where she was looking and a bit of a grin slowly spread across his face. “My head!” Because of course he’d be excited to see such a prop.
Hand going to her heart, Marguerite managed to catch her breath after the initial shock wore off. Well, it really sunk in once Percy was standing with her and she was aware that he was alive and beside her. Which… of course she knew he was alive. She’d gone through two sets of dreams already and knew that every time she’d thought him dead he’d been alive. But there was something about seeing his head on the mantlepiece that seemed to make logic fly out the window.
Instead she just looked to her boyfriend at his remark and shook her head some.
“You would be excited.” Looking down at the broken coffee mug, Marguerite sighed. Right, she was going to need to clean that up and get a new cup of coffee. So it was to the kitchen to first get paper towels to clean up the spilled coffee, once that was cleaned up she’d worry about a new cup.
Despite knowing that things from the dreams could show up in this world, Percy hadn’t anticipated his fake head showing up. Not that he’d actually had any waking time to think that over, but that was besides the point. He was more than a little giddy about this. But before he carried on with his reaction to the head, it was making sure his girlfriend was okay.
“Are you alright?” He asked as he knelt down to pick up the mug and help clean up. After all, it was slightly his fault that Marguerite had been shocked in the first place. It was his fake head, done in exquisite detail after all. Sure he couldn’t control what showed up and when or how, but it was still his head.
And he would definitely keep it on display. Except for when they had company over. Then he’d put it in the closet or something. It would just be rude to frighten the guests with that.
Unless it was Halloween, then he could probably get away with it.
“I’m fine, dear. It just caught me off guard far too early in the morning.” She would laugh about it later when she was more awake. Well okay, seeing the fake head had definitely gotten Marguerite to wake up more than she would have been otherwise before having coffee. Either way though, it was not an ideal way to start the day. Though near heart attacks rarely were.
Coffee and mug cleaned up, Marguerite headed back to the kitchen once more and poured herself a new mug as well as one for Percy as he was now up, making it up the way he liked it before handing it to him.
“So I’m guessing you’re up to your faked execution then?” Experience said that items from the dreams tended to show up with the accompanying dream. So that meant that Percy was almost done. If she recalled he had done the fake execution, she’d been convinced she and Armand were next then he revealed himself, set up Chauvelin, the two reconnected and headed back to England and that had been it. At least for the first set of dreams. The last set she’d had, plus the one she was currently dealing with seemed to move past that into other situations.
“It certainly is not something to see while only barely conscious, that is for certain.” Talk about a rude awakening, this fake head was life-like enough to cause a fuss. Percy was certain if he was someone else looking at this, he’d undoubtedly initially think it was real.
Taking his coffee and thanking Marguerite, he took a drink of it before he moved over to the mantle to better admire it. “I am, yes. Which, by the way, I am sorry that you had to watch that.” Percy more than knew that everyone there undoubtedly thought he had actually been executed. Of course, that had been the entire point. If people had known Percy would have faked his execution, the trick would not have worked.
“Though I am still amazed by how lifelike this turned out to be.” It was definitely a work of art.
“No, no it’s not.” Things that Marguerite could have done without. Oh well, at least it was over now. Yes, she was much more awake than she would have been otherwise and that was frustrating. Mostly as she did need to wake up for yoga but not that way.
As Percy went to admire the artwork of the head, Marguerite headed to the couch and curled up on it, sipping her coffee as he answered her question.
“It’s fine. Well, it wasn’t but I understand.” She could remember waking up from that particular dream the first time around, the crushing feeling of complete loss, all for a man she had yet to meet. The fact that it had happened in the midst of an Orange County event where she was constantly awake and thus hallucinating horrible things… well, she was just glad it was over.
“Marie was quite talented.” Is? She didn’t know. What Marguerite did know was that Marie wasn’t there in Orange County and for her, it had been over two years since she’d had the set of dreams Percy was having.
It certainly was a rather rude way to wake up, that was for certain. If he’d had any control over where the fake head would have showed up, it would not have been where Marguerite would have seen it first thing before she was properly awake. But as it was, at least it hadn’t gone as bad as it could have. There was something to be said about that.
“If there had been another way to accomplish it, I would have. But at least it worked.” Everyone had thought it was real, and that was just the opening he’d needed to gain the upper hand on Chauvelin. Oh how the man who always dressed so bleakly had under-estimated Percy. Of course, that had been exactly what Percy had wanted, to be under-estimated so he could outsmart Chauvelin, who was quite the formidable opponent. Far too grim for Percy’s liking, but that’s what had been the best about Percy’s nincompoop facade, he could make fun of the man.
“Indeed she was. Is. Hm. Verb tenses get a little strange with the dreams.” Because while Percy had just dreamt it, in the grand scheme of the world’s timeline, the events had happened over two hundred years earlier. “Nevertheless, I suppose we at least have this little keepsake to remind us of both Marie and how we outsmarted Chauvelin in the end.” He then turned and went to sit down beside Marguerite on the couch. “We just need a place to put this charming fellow.”
“I know, then again you weren’t expecting me to sail to France alone and the use of the Comedie Francaise.” That had been all Marguerite. Even with the Pimpernel’s assurances, she had felt it was her duty to save her brother and she couldn’t wait for a man she didn’t truly know beyond a conversation while he stood behind her. And it had been brilliant to use the old theatre for a hide out but there was no way he could have been prepared for that right away. It had been done on the fly and she had long come to terms with that.
“They really do.” Add in multiple versions of the dreams and Marguerite sometimes found herself quite confused in speaking about things, differentiating between each set because while the basic pattern remained the same, there were slight differences. Taking a sip of her coffee, Marguerite sent an amused look to her boyfriend.
“I shouldn’t be surprised that you want to display it. As for where would be a good place? That I don’t know.”
“No, though knowing you and knowing that it was Armand, I should have at least anticipated you may be there.” After all, it was Marguerite. Her and Armand were close, and Marguerite highly protective of her brother. It should have been something he had at least thought was possible to happen. Though it had been a time where all he was thinking of was saving Armand and coming up with the plan to trap Chauvelin.
Percy had to chuckle a bit, flashing a smile back at his girlfriend. “Of course I do! Not when we have company, obviously. Don’t want to give anyone else heart attacks or something. Though I reserve the right to use it for Halloween festivities. It could certainly see much use as a Halloween prop.” Which it really was. Perhaps he’d have to decorate around the fake head this year. He wasn’t always the type to go all-out on Halloween, but now with something like this? How could he not use it?
“Probably.” Though she would always give him credit for how close he got. But Chauvelin was a paranoid man, obsessed. She should have known he’d see through her disguise but in her desperation to save Armand she just hadn’t cared. And it was all in the past. Or sort of for Percy. Getting to the past.
“Obviously. Dieu, Armand would probably panic if he saw it initially without warning. But yes, Halloween is a perfectly acceptable time to have it on display.”
Then again, Halloween in Orange County also had a tendency to be… well, Orange County like. No matter though. Finishing her coffee, Marguerite stood up. “Now, while you figure out what to do with your head, I’m going to get ready for yoga.” Giving Percy a kiss, she placed the mug in the kitchen and then headed to get ready for yoga and then the rest of the day.