Marguerite Blakeney is clearly beyond scruples (blazeinhereyes) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-08-02 15:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, marguerite blakeney, william laurence |
Who: Laurence and Marguerite
What: Laurence decides to volunteer
When: Recently
Where: Pimpernel Outreach
Warnings: Low
Status: Partner Thread | Complete
Laurence generally liked to keep himself busy, whether he be at sea or on land. He knew that part of keeping a crew from losing their heads at sea was to make sure that they were generally occupied. The problem was, when he wasn’t surrounded by his crew at all hours of the day, Laurence wasn’t terribly sure what to do with himself.
He had, of course, made it a habit to visit some of the local culture in the area, but art shows and the theatre could only occupy so much of his time, and with his leg so injured from his dreams, he wasn’t able to take his customary morning run on the beach or some of the longer hikes he would take to pass the time.
He remembered then, Mrs. Blakeney mentioning that she ran an outreach, and Laurence thought it was time to follow up on his offer to volunteer. It wasn’t hard to locate the Pimpernel Outreach. He walked in, using a black cane with a silver dragon head handle, to help support himself, and smiled when he spotted her. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Blakeney.”
There was certainly plenty going on even though she wasn’t in production for anything. Well not really. There were the refresher rehearsals for Bandstand as well as talking with the director about trying to get another Broadway bound show to put on in the area to try and make it a bit more accessible. But that was currently just talk at the moment.
Which was why she was spending more time at Pimpernel Outreach, especially given Freya’s current schedule. It had been open a few months now and already was doing quite well in terms of the help it was offering. Not to mention the work they were putting in the underground railroad program that was to be under the table given the nature of that particular work.
Presently she was looking over a list of work readiness classes that they were planning to put together as well as a program to help someone get work experience in an internship while working towards a GED. At least until she heard her name. It still was thrilling to hear the Mrs.Blakeney even though she’d basically been married to Percy even before they met. But that had always been Lady Blakeney in the dreams.
Looking up, the actress smiled.
“Well hello,” And that was when she noticed the can and concern quickly flickered through her eyes, “Are you alright?”
“Hello,” Laurence said, smiling with pleasure as Marguerite came into view.
He didn’t miss the look, and his face took on a more reassuring quality. “I’m quite alright,” he said, and then gave a quick glance around to make sure that there was no one else within earshot. “I had an unfortunate incident in the dreams, but I’ve been assured that, if I take care of it, I will make a full recovery.” And he was doing his best. He couldn’t stand to rest it as much as the doctors would have liked, but he was doing the exercises the physiotherapist had given him and was doing his best to rest it as much as he could bear.
Luckily it was just them at the moment and the second Laurence mentioned the dreams, all Marguerite could do was nod. Oh, she was all too familiar with things crossing over from the dreams. She had died thanks to them.
“The dreams can be bothersome like that,” Understatement, “But I’m glad to hear that you will make a full recovery as I don’t see you as the type to not take proper care of such things.”
Really. Even in their few conversations, it was pretty obvious to Marguerite that Laurence was the type to take such matters quite seriously.
“So. What brings you here today?” And just like that, it was easy to flip to another topic. There was no real use dwelling on things from the dreams and as she knew that he would be fine, she was able to focus more.
Laurence nodded. Bothersome seemed to be a bit of an understatement. As much as he enjoyed spending time with Temeraire in his dreams, he could hardly be glad for them when they started affecting his personal life in such real and troublesome ways.
“Last time we spoke, you had mentioned volunteer opportunities,” Laurence said.
For all of her brother’s claims that she was dramatic, Marguerite had a habit of downplaying anything that happened to her personally. Be it overzealous admirers, injuries, or the like. So bothersome being used to describe dream crossover? That was about par with what should be expected from her.
“Ah yes!” Well, that was always good news when someone decided to show up to volunteer.
“There are a number of opportunities. One moment.” Heading back to an office, Marguerite found the print out they had for volunteer opportunities. There hadn’t been enough interest yet to start holding volunteer seminars where they went over each one but she hoped they would get to that point eventually. “Here you go.” Included were some work readiness positions, data entry and admin things, teaching, legal, front desk, manning the phones and things of that nature.
Laurence took a moment to peruse the positions and their duties, frowning thoughtfully to himself. In the end, there was only one that he thought he could be suited for. He had been in the Navy for the majority of his life and therefore hadn’t had much cause to become proficient in office duties, but while he’d been a schoolboy he’d always had fair marks and had taken to tutouring some of the other students. Nevermind the dreams, where he had often overseen the education of his young runners, even if they weren’t what one would call attentive students.
“Could I get a little more information on these teaching positions,” he asked her.
Oh good, there was something that Laurence seemed to think he would be a good fit for. That was always a positive.
“It depends really. We have classes in job readiness but because we also work with children as well as people looking to get their GEDs to be able to start university or just get a better job, there are a lot of tutoring and teaching options for things that you would find on an exit exam of sorts in terms of math, science, language arts, and the like. Really it just depends on where you feel most confident in.”
“I would say I am most strong in maths,” Laurence responded. He had no great love of math, but it was an important skill in sailing and navigation. While he could have always relied on technology in the waking world, he made a point to keep his skills up to date, and the dreams, where such technology had not yet been dreamed of, had only served to hone his skills. Now even in the waking world, as in the dreams, he could perform advanced equations with hardly any thought.
As Laurence said what he was strongest at, Marguerite nodded. Math was definitely an important aspect for studying and many people seemed to shy away from it - either in wanting to learn it or to tutor in it.
“Well, we definitely could use someone who is strong in math to help with tutoring there.”
“Splendid,” Laurence said warmly. “Then I suppose all that’s left is to sign up. I’ll trouble you to help me, if you would.”