Marguerite Blakeney is clearly beyond scruples (blazeinhereyes) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-09-10 15:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, marguerite blakeney, vincent griffith |
Who: Vincent and Marguerite
What: Old friends catching up
When: 6 September 2017, evening
Where: Restaurant
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Dinner with an old friend. Vincent was looking forward to it. It sure as hell beat ending his night in a bar, even if he did seem to run into people from his past at them lately. And of course it beat unpacking. Vincent’s apartment was close to being fully unpacked now. Just some odds and ends here and there. All the essentials were taken care of at least. But most importantly he was looking forward to catching up with an old friend.
Once arriving at the agreed upon restaurant Vincent was seated at a table. He ordered himself a glass of sangiovese while he waited for Marguerite to arrive.
The show was officially over, including strike and the cast party. Of course, then Marguerite had call backs to go to in the next day or so, but that was her typical schedule. She usually just didn’t have to worry about two shows a day for over a week. But there would be sailing over the weekend and hopefully a bit of time to relax.
For now, it was getting dinner with a friend from Paris. She had to admit that she was surprised to see Vincent show up. Yes, she was well familiar with the pull of Orange County but she’d already been here before. Though she supposed there would always be opportunities given the location. She’d get more answers later.
Arriving at the restaurant, Marguerite gave her name and was led to the table, smiling to Vincent as she saw her former neighbor. “Well hello stranger.”
“Hello,” Vincent replied a smile spreading across his face, he stood up to greet her properly. It was nice to see his old neighbor. He had never imagined he would run into her again. Small world apparently.
“I must say you were incredible in Bandstand,” Vincent commented as he sat back down. Because yes he had managed to make a show. He hadn’t mentioned it or waited for her after though. They already had plans for dinner and he figured she was probably exhausted from the two shows a day schedule.
Marguerite was, by nature, an affectionate woman. As such she hugged Vincent with a smile in greeting before she took her seat at the table. Really, she was used to people showing up in the area that were unexpected, but her neighbor from Paris? That was definitely more on the small world type scale.
The compliment just made her smile brighter.
“Well thank you! It was a great show to be part of. Just the entire cast and crew really.” Okay so she tended to think that about every show she was a part of. But still. Though it was true that after two shows a day, Marguerite tended to be exhausted. She would always be nice to those who came to the stage door but she also liked getting home as well.
“Where have I heard that before?” he grinned at her. Back in Paris he had made it a point to see all her shows, and she always said the same thing once it was over. “Two shows a day though?” he questioned. He knew that two performances a day were common like one or two days out of the week. But back to back like that? “I’m surprised you aren’t sleeping for a week.”
“Touche.” Marguerite did have a tendency to say similar things about previous shows. But that was irrelevant, it was always true. As for why the two shows a day for over a week? That was a bit harder to explain for someone not used to Orange County type things. Yes, Vincent was on the network, which meant he’d need to be warned about it, but she wasn’t quite sure the what to say part yet.
“Well, we had to cancel a few shows so we had to make them up while maintaining our last date in order to strike and then let the next show load in.” Thus, a grueling last week of performances. “And miss meeting up for dinner? Hardly.”
“It’s a good thing you love your work,” Vincent commented. “And had a great crew and cast.” He couldn’t help but continue with the joke. Vincent wasn’t exactly the most light hearted guy. But certain occasions brought it out in him. Seeing Marguerite again was one of those times.
“Why did you have to cancel shows?” His curiosity got the better of him. It would have to be something big in order to cancel performances. Vincent didn’t remember hearing anything.
“Well then I’m honored,” he grinned picking up the menu to look it over. It was true though, it meant a lot that Marguerite was taking the time to see him when she was surely exhausted.
“It is!” Marguerite could easily take the teasing. Sometimes in the dreams she couldn’t, but those times had been when she and Percy were in the midst of misunderstanding so the ‘jokes’ were meant to hurt. But then there was the question.
“I’m not exactly sure when you got back, however there were a bunch of...incidents around the time of the eclipse.” Yeah, she had no idea how to explain this because it really did take a lot to get a performance to shut down, let alone five in a row. But… Vincent was on the network so he was bound to figure it out. “I’m sure you’ve noticed some of the conversations on the network can be...peculiar?”
That was an understatement.
“As well you should be.” But yes, looking at a menu was important.
Vincent had arrived just before the eclipse, but he hadn’t noticed anything odd. He had been too busy unpacking to really pay attention to much. “Incidents?” he questioned with a raised brow before going on to answer her question. “If by peculiar you mean talk about dreams? Than yes I have.” He hadn’t thought much about it though. He figured he had just stumbled across a network where people liked to work through their dreams by sharing them. Nothing wrong with that. He admired it. Although he wasn’t sure he would be sharing the innermost workings of his consciousness anytime soon.
“Unrisen dead and demons.” And she was completely serious. Marguerite was generally playful and enjoyed teasing her friends, however this wasn’t a situation where it was appropriate. Taking a sip of wine, Marguerite sighed.
“It may sound insane, believe me I know it does. However there is more to the dreams than just what you might have any given night. They’re like different lives, there’s a difference in how they feel. Either way, sometimes things can… cross over. Objects, injuries… or events like demons invading. In May it was as if we were living Star Wars.”
And she’d needed to fight off Clone troopers while in a corset with a lightsaber. Only in Orange County, really.
Marguerite always seemed on the sane side to him. However, what she was saying didn’t exactly fall in line with that. Vincent liked to believe he had an open mind. It was impossible not to with his area of study, and now teaching. But this was a bit too much, even for him to believe. It had to be a sleep deprivation thing, from all those shows. It was the only logical explanation he could think of.
“Are you sure you’re getting enough sleep?” Vincent didn’t want to insult his friend but it was a bit concerning.
Little did he know what Orange County had in store for him.
The comment earned Vincent a quirked brow before Marguerite sighed. She knew how insane it sounded, but it was what it was
“This past week? No. But that doesn’t make it any less true.”
Which was frustrating. How nice would it be if someone could warn a person about what to expect and not be looked at as if there were something wrong with you. True, she had the excuse of sleep deprivation this time around. But that wasn’t what was causing it.
“Look, I know how it sounds, believe me. And it’s not really something you can just explain as it usually requires first hand experience before it starts to become more believable. But I’m not seeing things that aren’t there because of sleep deprivation or anything like that.”
Again, Vincent wasn’t quite sure how to reply. He was silent for a moment, considering his words. “I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it.” If he did somehow experience it for himself he would certainly let her know. But in case he didn’t, which he was fairly certain he wouldn’t, he would keep an eye on Marguerite. Just to make sure she was in fact okay.
Shrugging some, Marguerite seemed to brush it off. Honestly, that was about as good as one could hope for in the situation before someone actually started dreaming and experiencing the strange occurrences that only seemed to happen in Orange County.
“That’s all I ask. So. Enough about me and the weirdness of our location. How about you? Since when did you decide to be a professor?”
Best to let the subject drop there as Vincent was still quite skeptical about it. At least Marguerite didn’t seem all that offended that he wasn’t believing her. Vincent wasn’t the type to offend a friend.
“Don’t think you’re getting off that easily. I do expect a list of all the shows you have been in since I last saw you.” He probably wouldn’t know all of them depending on how obscure they were, but he would at least know a few.
As for him? “Since two weeks ago,” he replied sheepishly. “An old professor turned down the job and recommended me. I suppose my thirst for knowledge qualified.” Despite his charisma, he was a bit nervous about teaching his first class.
Laughing some, Marguerite nodded. “There was Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, then The Pirate Queen and then Bandstand.” Three shows in under a year. That was about par the course for Marguerite. Then again she had literally flown in late for Great Comet but since she was Equity, she had a later start date and basically had immersed herself in rehearsals right off the plane.
Still, she was much more interested in what had brought Vincent here.
“Wow, impressive. And Eva was okay with the sudden change?” It was strange the woman wasn’t actually at dinner either, though it was always possible that she had other things going on. After all, she had no idea that the two had gotten divorced.
“Wish I could have seen them,” Vincent commented honestly. He did miss seeing his friend on stage. At least had gotten to see Bandstand though. And he was sure there would be more to come now that they were both in the same area again.
Right, Eva. A subject he wasn’t particularly fond of, but Marguerite had lived next to the both of them. She did deserve an explanation. “I’m not sure.” Another honest answer. “She’s not exactly in the picture anymore.” A sip of his wine before his next statement. “We got divorced.”
There would always be shows. Marguerite had call backs the following day and then if that didn’t work out, she’d find other shows to audition for.
As Vincent mentioned that he wasn’t sure how Eva felt about the change, Marguerite quirked a brow because how did that… and then the answer to the question she hadn’t gotten a chance to ask. And well… that certainly explained the lack of the woman’s presence.
“Oh.” Fiddling with her necklace, Marguerite took another sip of wine, “I’m sorry.”
What else could she really say?
“Thanks,” Vincent replied because it was the appropriate response. “But there really isn’t anything to be sorry about,” he added. He was fine. Part of him still loved Eva and probably always would, but that was life. He was moving on now.
Just then the waiter came by. Vincent placed an order for filet mignon waiting for Marguerite to place her order before speaking again. “Now let’s just have a pleasant dinner. No more talk of the past.” Or well Eva. If she wanted to discuss fond memories of their time in Paris he was fine with that.
It wasn’t hard to tell that past meant Eva and so Marguerite nodded. Still, she put in her own order and nodded.
“Yes, I think that can be arranged.”
Because there was plenty to talk about that didn’t have to tie to Eva, or strange Orange County shenanigans. There was so much more in the world.