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 Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:03 pm
Daphne hadn't really wasted much time in the scheme of things. The first afternoon she'd gotten her script had been a working afternoon, yet there had been enough time between sticky-handed brats from hell and stocking the store to skim through it. She was some chick called 'Morgan le Fay' and she knew...nothing about the part past the fact that her name was Morgan le Fay and she was apparently some kind of awesome power chick that needed to be sympathized with.
This did not make the bluenette feel very good overall. But, she kept reminding herself, that she didn't know a damn thing about Arthurian anything. So she called on the best resource she had -- Tony Darrow. Not only was he a librarian, she was pretty sure one of the few things he did like reading was all this Arthur stuff. And ********, he was Camelot Squire, wasn't he? So whipping a scrap of receipt left behind onto the counter the knight scrawled a request to meet at Shufflepucks later that evening, coffee on her, sealed with a stamp of her signet ring.
Yes, she'd started carrying a stamp pad in her bag. No, that wasn't weird at all. It was a bit less creepy than blood, a bit less messy than ink, and it came right off the ring with a damp rag so as not to look...off.
Rushing in she spotted the dignified man sitting at one of the many well-scuffed tables in the joint, the whole of it badly in need of renovating everywhere except their menu. Rushing over she beamed. "I could hug you. I promise to refrain but I desperately need your help." The script was dropped between them.
"Who the heck is Morgan?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 6:05 pm
Tony often did the things notes told him to do. When he got a note from Daphne, then, he was more than willing to meet at the assigned location and wait for her.
The note had him curious, though. The fact that it was written on the back of receipt tape, for one. The promise of coffee made it seem less like an emergency, not to mention that it had been scheduled for later in the evening and not 'right away'. He decided there was nothing dangerous going on, though he was still on edge and wondered what the problem might be.
People usually talked to him about problems.
He smiled at her as she came over, though, and looked at the script she dropped to the table. He looked surprised and then laughed a bit. So that was the problem.
"Morgan Le Fay, in this play at any rate, is Arthur's rival. She is a Seer, and uses Arthur for her own ends: an heir and King to Camelot. She seduces the young King and that's where Mordred comes from, who eventually kills Arthur. She's been written and portrayed in a number of ways, though, from sentimental to completely evil."
He was certainly a good choice to come to: he had helped Kyndall write the play. Or at least contributed his thoughts and edits. It wasn't much, in the end, but he had helped and at least had a vague idea of how things would go.
"Have you read through the part yet at all? I think there is a lot of room for you to make your own... what did Kyndall call them... choices. Character choices."
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 6:14 pm
"Wait hang on." A hand was thrown up. Seer was pretty cool, but the seduction thing was pretty awkward considering she'd never before seen the guy that was supposed to be Arthur. Even worse when she realized the words 'rival' and 'completely evil'. Several emotions flickered through her mind, visible in the way her eyes went from interested, to a little worried, to completely and utterly horrified in the worst way possible.
"I'm the bad guy?!" Her voice rose dramatically on those two words like they had rockets strapped to shoot them up through the vocal range up to the tippy top of the octave. The bluenette hadn't realized she had yelled until Becky, Daphne's favorite waitress who was already putting the touches on a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls, dropped the spatula she was using on the floor with a clatter in surprise. "Oh. Oh sorry Beck, uhm, good tip tonight?" She laughed sheepishly before putting her head down with a groan.
Well, at least she had the dramatic, woebegone woman down pat.
"What the heck is it about me that sets off people's evil meters? I was stupid Beryl in that Barren..." Her lips clamped together. Everyone thought that Barren Pines had been an organ ring, she was one of the few survivors, a thing that nobody knew about. Audrey Collins was that girl. Daphne Proudmoore was not. But it still bothered her more than a little bit.
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Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 6:52 pm
Tony looked at her, then nodded his head when she raised her hand. He imagined she was being funny, like she was in class and he was lecturing. Well, he would allow her the question and he nodded at her raised hand.
Might as well get used to playing roles. At the moment he was the teacher, but for this play he would have to be a dying king. How he had let her convince him was beyond his knowledge now, but he was sure it was going to be the end of him. He was already nervous.
"Well. Yes. In a manner of speak. One of the bad guys," he scratched the back of his neck, then leaned forward to indicate they should keep their voices a little more personal between the two of them. He was pretty sure she had echoed with that outburst.
He smiled apologetically as Becky looked over at them and Daphne promised a good tip.
Tony looked at her warningly, as a parent was wont to do, when she almost mentioned something she was not supposed to say in general public. He didn't know those details, but he had heard enough and experienced his own insane situations to understand it was not what it seemed.
"It's just a play. Morgan is a very strong woman, and she doesn't have to just be what people see her as," Tony explained, but he felt like he was speaking on two levels. And maybe he was. "You can play her however you'd like. The important thing is to have fun with it, and make her who you want her to be. Even people who do bad things have their reasons. If it's not written, you get to decide."
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:02 pm
Sighing deeply, Daphne didn't quite pick her head up out of the crook of her elbow but did at least lift her face up and out so that she could look at Tony while he talked. It always was a bit humorous how usually spot-on helpful he was when she was having problems like this, because she should have been the teacher. She was the Knight, he was the Squire, but ever since Camelot had met Lina he was always teaching her a new way to look a things, a better way usually.
Sometimes though, she had to remind herself that she could still kick his butt. That was knowledge the bluenette always hugged to herself when she was made to feel especially stupid. Not that he ever meant to do that, oh no. That was all her.
"Yeah, there are people who do things for reasons that they see as justified, though what they might be doing isn't necessarily a 'good' thing. I gather from this that she has a child that she feels would be a more suitable king than Arthur, so she uses her son so that she can...rule through him? Or just because she thinks her son would be a better king? Either way it's treason." Pausing, the script was spun just a little with a frown.
"But she doesn't think of it as treason. Because in the end she will be helping more than she will be hurting, yet nobody wants her son to rule, they want Arthur. Does that make what she is doing right simply because she sees it as right? That's the question that keeps me up at night. All those things...I thought they were right. Does that mean that they weren't because what I thought I was helping build never existed? Meh." Coffee and rolls were placed in front of her sulking nose so she took a deep drink, bolstering herself.
"So it'd be possible to play Morgan as a woman who wants a better world, and doesn't think that Arthur is the man to do it? You know more about this thing than I do. I just don't think...does she have to be bad? Why can't she just be...different?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:30 pm
She could be very secure in the knowledge that she could kick his butt all the way across town if she wanted to. Of course, he would never encourage her to do such a thing, as he did not want to suffer it. He knew as well as she did that she was stronger not only in practice and rank, but experience as well.
Usually, it was his time as a librarian and not as a knight that helped him help her with her problems. He didn't know how she felt about it, but from his end he was always trying to do the best by her. The best thing for her. He felt she deserved to be taken care of, that she had far too many responsibilities for someone her age.
He listened to her speaking, nodding his head slowly. It did make him think of their fight with the Negaverse, and how both sides saw the other as wrong, as the enemy. It made him think of how he tried to listen to both sides, while at the same time pursuing his own goals. It was a very complicated situation for anyone to be in, and not so easy to fake for a play when it hit home a little too well.
"I think that is a good way of seeing her. I don't think she has to be bad, no. I don't think she sees herself as it, either. You're right, she sees a different life, a different world for them to live in and wants to create it. It might be wrong in Arthur and his knights' eyes, but there are people who believe in Morgan's vision and support her, as well."
He smiled softly.
"Belief is a tricky thing. People believe what they are familiar with, and it's often the first thing they learn. It's not often that someone can break away from that, and even less so for them to get others to do the same. If you don't want to play her as evil, you don't have to. Because she's not." He smiled and watched her, knowing that things were more complicated than they seemed. "Are you alright?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:10 pm
Belief was the trickiest of things. People could do all kinds of things depending on their beliefs. Hell you didn't even have to consider the magical space war that was taking place here on Earth you just had to look at those people who did things in the name of their God, spreading hate and sowing seeds of distention simply because two people had different skin colors. Same-sex couples, of which she didn't really know any but was positive it was totally okay to be with whomever the hell you wanted, were just as bad.
It would have been incredibly hypocritical for her of all people to knock anyone for wanting to be with someone they were told they couldn't be, even if it had failed epically and blown up like Hiroshima.
Daphne responded to Tony with a light smile of her own. "I'm doing okay. Things have been a bit rough since Elzo went back to Europe but I'm getting there. Being in my..." She caught herself again, damn that tongue! "My house helps. It's really cozy and isn't too lonely but...dunno. Hey." The idea lit her up a bit more, the bluenette lifting up on her elbows to lean a bit closer to the father figure she'd started to assimilate into her life.
"If I threw a cast party thing at some point, do you think you'd come? I wouldn't have you come to like some wild college kid party or anything, that's pretty weird for both of us, but a cast party is totally legit right?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:42 pm
Tony watched her, and didn't believe for a moment she was as okay as she said she was. But he never did. It was part of his duty to not believe her, and to make sure she was doing okay himself. He wouldn't be a very good overbearing adult/librarian/squire if he didn't fuss over her constantly.
He sighed, nodding his head and accepting her answer. Maybe he could do something nice for her, though he'd have to think.
"A cast party?"
Tony was working very hard to pretend he was not in the cast, and that he was not embarrassing himself in front of however big the audience was going to be. Damn those pretty eyes Kyndall had, and the way she looked like a soggy kitten when she was sad. Or pretending to be sad to goad him into something like this. Still, he had nothing against the cast themselves, or the idea of hanging out with them when they weren't on stage and thus he wasn't panicking.
In fact, doing anything away from the stage with them sounded much better than the actual purpose of their being drawn together. At least for him, as he looked to the future with dread and fear. He had not even begun to learn his lines... so it was difficult to tell himself everything would be just fine.
"Cast parties are legit," he said, acknowledging that when he said the word 'legit' it sounded like an old woman saying 'google'. "And I think it would be fun to unwind. Plays are stressful, for supposedly being so fun." He was no actor, so the whole idea that people did this kind of thing regularly and for pleasure was baffling to him.
"I would certainly go to one."
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