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Post by Dr. Lionel Randall on May 25, 2011 17:09:18 GMT -5
They say time’s a healer but my watch can’t tell the time The left hand’s stuck six months agoand I can’t find the right I don’t know anything
Ba-bum. Ba-bum.
That was the sound Lionel's heart made when he was nervous.
Don't be silly, he chided himself, clutching the folder close, the human heart always sounds like that, because it is always beating away, every second of the day, to think that it's different because of a emotional state is silly...
...yet I wrote my term paper about how the heart has become associated with emotions, so that was all reassuring bull.
Lionel breathed in deeply, trying to calm his nerves. Geez, he was just asking her about a play. He saw her every day in the staff lounge, what was special about right here, right now?
Nothing he always felt like this right before he saw her. Another deep breath, then knock. In... out. Lionel flips through the folder on more time, just to make sure he hadn't left anything in the other instructor's room, then discovering that he hadn't, checked his pager to see if anyone had checked into the infirmary. Just the inhaler kids. Er. Well, he was out of excuses now.
One, two, three...
He opened the door.
"Er, Alex, could I ask you some questions about the play the juniors are reading?"
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Post by Professor Alexandra Fieldings on May 25, 2011 17:28:42 GMT -5
Conjunction junction, What’s your function? Hooking up words And phrases and clauses.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or, in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear.
Alex flips another page of her worn, dog-eared copy of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is sprawled out on the floor of her classroom, on her back, shoes kicked off, book propped against her knees, when the knock pierces into her consciousness. The door swings open, and Lionel Randall’s head pokes around the door.
She gets lazily to her feet, turning to face him with a smile. “Sure, Lion!”
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Post by Dr. Lionel Randall on May 26, 2011 16:41:58 GMT -5
They say time’s a healer but my watch can’t tell the time The left hand’s stuck six months agoand I can’t find the right I don’t know anything
He doesn't know how she does it- always relaxed, laid back, happy go lucky Alexandra Elizabeth Fieldings never seems to be surprised by anything, always taking things into her stride and little bubble of positivity. She doesn't even look up right away as he opens the door, she's still flipping through her book. He stares at the floor as she gets up, preparing himself to ask the needed questions without stuttering or hesitation.
Fat chance.
He puts his things down on a near by desk, pulling out the teacher's copy of "Much Ado About Nothing", a Shakespeare play. The thing was, that was basically all he knew about the play. And he was teaching Act 3 tomorrow. Er.
"Could you, er explain to me exactly what happens in this play?" he asks, flicking through the book as he talked. "Act 3, specifically- I'm not sure what everyone is trying to do."
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Post by Professor Alexandra Fieldings on May 26, 2011 19:28:13 GMT -5
((Megsy: I bolded the important bits. The rest is just explanation. You don’t have to read it.)) Conjunction junction, What’s your function? Hooking up words And phrases and clauses.
If it was even possible, her smile grows wider. Shakespeare. Alex’s literary love.
“’I tell this tale vilely--I should first tell thee how the Prince, Claudio, and my master, planted and placed and possessed by my master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable encounter.’ Act three, scene three.” she quotes, then begins her summary without missing a beat.
Scene One
Hero tells her servant Margaret to fetch Beatrice and tells her that she overheard Hero and Ursula gossiping about Beatrice in the orchard. Hero then orders Ursula to talk about Benedick as if he were madly in love with Beatrice. She agrees, and they wait until they see Beatrice hide herself in the orchard before walking towards the hiding spot.
They arrive where Beatrice is hiding and Hero informs Ursula that Benedick is madly in love with Beatrice, but that she will never tell Beatrice because she is afraid her cousin would only ridicule Benedick. Ursula agrees, and Hero then mentions that Beatrice is so sharp tongued that she often finds faults in men that are not really there. Ursula then praises Benedick as a man, saying he is one of the best men in Italy and would be an excellent match for Beatrice. After they leave, Beatrice steps forward and comments that rather then be condemned for her pride and scorn she will requite Benedick's love and marry him.
Scene Two
Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato find Benedick to be acting sadder than usual, and make fun of him as if he is in love. He does not deny their charge, but finally asks Leonato if he could have a word with him in private. Don Pedro tells Claudio that Benedick must want to discuss Beatrice with Leonato. Don John arrives and informs Claudio and Don Pedro that Hero is unfaithful. He offers to prove it to them, telling them to go with him that night and look into Hero's chamber window. Claudio states that if he sees any reason not to wed Hero that night, he will shame her in the church before the wedding ceremony the next day. Don Pedro supports him and they promise to meet Don John that night.
Scene Three
Dogberry and Verges, both fools in charge of the watchmen, get one of their men and make him the constable of the watch for the night. He agrees, but asks what he should do if he orders a man to stop and the man refuses. Dogberry tells him to ignore the man, and good riddance of a knave, because they can only stop loyal subjects of the Prince. Verges then orders the man to keep silence throughout the town. They leave the man to his job as constable, and Dogberry orders him to wake him up only if something important comes up. Borachio and Conrad arrive and accidentally stand within hearing distance of the watchman whom Dogberry appointed constable. Borachio tells Conrad that he earned a thousand ducats from Don John that night because he wooed Margaret in Hero's room and called her Hero. Meanwhile, Don John had brought Don Pedro and Claudio to orchard where they watched this whole scene and became convinced that Hero was committing infidelity. One of the night watchmen, having overheard this story, arrests Borachio and Conrad for villainy. They agree to go peacefully and are taken to be judicially interrogated.
Scene Four
Hero is getting dressed by Margaret for her wedding that day. She sends Ursula to fetch Beatrice, who arrives but has lost her wittiness and has also caught a cold. Margaret makes severally sexually explicit puns before mentioning to Beatrice that Benedick is now in love. Margaret then implies that perhaps Beatrice will someday decide to fall in love much the Benedick has. Ursula interrupts her and informs Hero that the men are all gathered to take her to the church.
Scene Five
Dogberry has gone to Leonato to inform him that two suspicious men were arrested the night before. He asks Leonato to examine the men, but since the wedding is that day, Leonato refuses and orders Dogberry to conduct the examination himself. Dogberry orders Verges to bring one of his men who knows how to write so that they can write down the entire examination and bring it to Leonato. That about cover it?” Boy, does Alexandra Fieldings know her Shakespeare. If one knows her, it’s not surprising to see her rattle off this (or more) if asked a question about a play, poem, or sonnet. She actually wrote her term paper on ‘Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer’s Day’. Her teacher had gotten a bit upset with her-- she filled a whole notebook with her small, neat handwriting. It was a ten-page minimum essay. Well, she met the criteria, alright.
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Post by Dr. Lionel Randall on May 27, 2011 17:48:55 GMT -5
((taking some liberties with how Alex went about describing the scenes, Dawnies. Like, making her have diagrams and stuff.)) They say time’s a healer but my watch can’t tell the time The left hand’s stuck six months agoand I can’t find the right I don’t know anything
In college, Lionel discovered that every single person had one subject- usually just one, sometimes more- that they could rattle on about for forever and a day, at least. For some, that subject was sports. For him, it was genetics and biology. For Alexandra, evidently, was Shakespeare.
She could tell him the names of each and every mouse that twitched an ear to listen at the second showing of the play, he was sure by the time she finished. There didn't seem to be a concept that she did not grasp as clearly, not a character whom she did not know inside and out. He was almost able to stop looking at the beautiful fall of her hair while she was drawing the relation lines on the white board and actually pay attention to what she was saying.
Well, he was paying attention. Kinda.
He looked up at her when she was through. "Er... yeah, I think." Then he shakes his head. "Er, rather, not really. So, what's the importance of Dogberry?"
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Post by Professor Alexandra Fieldings on May 27, 2011 18:10:46 GMT -5
Conjunction junction, What’s your function? Hooking up words And phrases and clauses.
Oh, great. He looks lost. At least he’s not tuning her out like most of her students do when she goes into her one of her great spiels like this. Alex snaps the cap back on her bright blue EXPO marker, her eyes flitting over the board for a second. Wow. Quite the diagram. She’ll have to take a picture of it for her students as a study guide. She understands that, while this might be crystal clear in her mind, most people don’t share her love of the Immortal Bard, and therefore might not understand his writings quite as well as she does.
“Dogberry. Ah, Dogberry.
Dogberry is unashamedly out to get laughs. He first appears quite late in the play to instruct the men of the Prince’s Watch in how they should release their duties. His attitude to policing is less than “zero tolerance”, and he advises his men that “If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your office, to be no true man; and for such men, the less you meddle or make with them, why, the more is for your honesty.”
Dogberry is in continual danger of being misunderstood, as he uses contradictory terms with recklessness: “to talk is most tolerable and not to be endured”, “the most senseless and fit man”, “thou villain, thou art full of piety” As often with blunders, Shakespeare is perhaps making a joke over the character’s head – a senseless man might well be the most suitable for this deranged law enforcement operation! (Bearing in mind that it is Dogberry’s men who discover the plot against Hero, by the technique of sitting on the church bench while waiting to go to bed.) When Dogberry presents the case to Don Pedro, the Don is forced to ask the prisoners themselves why they have been arrested, explaining that “This learned constable is too cunning to be understood.”
Dogberry’s pretentious and mangled verbal displays are probably due to his desire to impress everyone. He has a very large sense of his own importance, demanding that his position as constable be respected (or “suspected”, as he calls it) and flying into a rage when one of the prisoners calls him an “ass”. This insult seems to offend him more than the intrigue and death Conrade and Borachio stand accused of, telling Leonato that “this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me ass” and asking that it “be remembered in his punishment.””
She stops suddenly. Wow. That was a simple question, and she responded with a five-minute speech. Alexandra, what will we do with you?
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Post by Dr. Lionel Randall on May 28, 2011 11:21:13 GMT -5
They say time’s a healer but my watch can’t tell the time The left hand’s stuck six months agoand I can’t find the right I don’t know anything
Her voice is like angels.
He picks up the basics of what she is saying this time, more or less- he's good at filtering out things to the stuff he needs- but he doesn't really want to know about Dogberry, he just wants to hear her voice wash over him like a wave on the sand.
"Er, okay, I think I've got it now." He shuffles through the folder he brought- what else could he ask about without looking like a witless bum? "Er, is there anything I should know about Ms. Klingston's class before I start teaching tomorrow? Which of the kids are troublemakers, er, that sort of thing?"
What a stupid question. But a question all the same.
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Post by Professor Alexandra Fieldings on May 28, 2011 11:38:11 GMT -5
ALEX FIELDINGS Conjunction junction, What’s your function? Hooking up words And phrases and clauses. Hm… The Children. Where to begin? Ms. Klingston doesn’t have much of a tight rein on them-- they tend to do what they want, when they want.
“Watch out for Jonah. Don’t trust anything he says. Half of them won’t have done their work, and will try to say that it wasn’t assigned, but I know for a fact that they had a paper on Act Two to do over the weekend. If a phone starts ringing, it’ll most likely be Miranda’s; Jessica’ll wander in late; Kristen will fall asleep halfway through the class. Ryan will throw paper airplanes; Jordan ask to go to the bathroom fifteen minutes before class ends, but he just wants to text. Take his phone before you let him go. Eric meows. Regan moves seats. Macey won’t have a pencil or paper. Michael won’t know the answer. I think that’s a-- Oh. don’t turn your back.”
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Post by Dr. Lionel Randall on May 28, 2011 12:24:31 GMT -5
They say time’s a healer but my watch can’t tell the time The left hand’s stuck six months agoand I can’t find the right I don’t know anything
Ah. Those juniors. God. He knew that their were basically two types of kids at this school- the ones that moped all the time about their tragic past, and the ones that decided to make life living hell for the teachers. Sure there were people in between the two categories, like himself, but honestly, as a teacher he found it hard to notice those.
He's taught some of these kids before- nothing new about Macey, or Kirsten. Jonah he hadn't taught. Going to have to watch him. "Don't turn your back?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. "Spitballs or nature kids?" The Nature Power kids tended to show off by drenching the teacher in water or setting their hair on fire. That might be a problem.
Then he might have an excuse to ask Alex to pull her thing on them, though. That would be embarrassing, sure, but any chance to talk to her.
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Post by Professor Alexandra Fieldings on May 28, 2011 14:24:02 GMT -5
ALEX FIELDINGS Conjunction junction, What’s your function? Hooking up words And phrases and clauses. She nods. “A mixture of both. A few energy manipulators thrown in too, for good measure. It’s not a good bunch of kids.”
Alex could handle the kids fine, have them sitting docilely in their seats like kindergarteners in no time flat. But Klingston just doesn’t have the presence to do it. She’s never even given out a detention, raised her voice, made the kids stay after class, anything. She’s meek. Her kids don’t want to behave. They want to make a complete fool out of their their teacher, and Ms. Klingston just takes it in stride, without a word of against it. It’s sad.
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Post by Dr. Lionel Randall on May 28, 2011 15:51:52 GMT -5
They say time’s a healer but my watch can’t tell the time The left hand’s stuck six months agoand I can’t find the right I don’t know anything
"EnManips, too?" Lionel groaned, walking to the other side of the room and leaning his forehead against the window. Getting hit in the small of the back by a ball of kinetic energy was not fun at all. "At times I wish I had a more intimidating ability so I could whip them in to shape." Fact: having the ability to heal people was not intimidating at all. Helpful, yes, but not striking.
"Soon those kids are going to go back to their folks," he remarked, looking at the barren trees outside. "Christmas break and such. Going to be quiet around here." Yes, there were some kids who didn't go home, but mostly over break the Academy was deserted, save for the Headmaster. Lionel didn't know yet what he was going to do- his father was on a research trip in south Africa, so who was left to spend Christmas with?
He slaps himself mentally- he was here to talk to Alex and figure out the play, not daydream.
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Post by Professor Alexandra Fieldings on May 28, 2011 16:59:18 GMT -5
ALEX FIELDINGS Conjunction junction, What’s your function? Hooking up words And phrases and clauses. Alex follows him to the window. “But your healing’s so helpful! What would we do without you here?”
He mentions Christmas Break, and she smiles. It’s her favorite of the breaks-- she loves the cold, the snow, the way everything slows down in December, the water icing over and everything twinkling… She wishes that it snowed in South Carolina. “Do you have any plans for the break? Going to see your parents or anything?”
She doesn’t have much in the way of a trip planned-- more of a stay-cation. Reading, baking, basically what she did on her school vacations as a kid.
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Post by Dr. Lionel Randall on May 28, 2011 18:02:26 GMT -5
They say time’s a healer but my watch can’t tell the time The left hand’s stuck six months ago and I can’t find the right I don’t know anything
A compliment. He blushes. "I guess do it the normal way?" he suggests, smiling. "Bandages, that sort of thing." The way they had trained him at university. Not that he did it like that often, didn't need to, usually. Still, it was a good skill to know.
Then his parents. It hits a chord, the way she still uses the plural. Maybe two years was still too short a time to recover. "I... I might go and visit my mum," he says slowly, meaning her resting place in the suburbs of Sydney. "It'd be only for a few days, though. Dad's in South Africa until February, so I'd probably be around here most of the time." He turns to her, smiling still, but just a little more force this time. "And you?"
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Post by Professor Alexandra Fieldings on May 28, 2011 19:11:44 GMT -5
ALEX FIELDINGS Conjunction junction, What’s your function? Hooking up words And phrases and clauses. “Pfft, bandages.” she scoffs. “What is this, the normal world?” Alexandra Fieldings is all about instant gratification-- high-paced modern society is her perfect world. It annoys her to wait two, three minutes in line. Imagine how insane she would go waiting six weeks for a bone to heal.
Alex is unaware that his mother had passed. If she knew, her foot would be far into her mouth by now. “Eh, not much. Catch up on my reading, mainly. I found this apple pie recipe that I’ve been dying to try out, but I just haven’t found the time yet. Other than that, nothing. Nothing at all.”
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Post by Dr. Lionel Randall on May 28, 2011 21:09:38 GMT -5
They say time’s a healer but my watch can’t tell the time The left hand’s stuck six months ago and I can’t find the right I don’t know anything
"As a matter of fact," he says, smiling, "yes, it is. Or, the rest of the world is odd and we are normal. Take your pick." It;s adorable how she disregards the idea of living without his abilities, and his heart rises in his chest.
Nothing? Ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum goes his heart again. Here's a perfect chance, go on, Lionel, take it, take it, take it... "Maybe we could go see the Christmas lights at the carnival," he suggests, heart pounding in his ears. "They are always really pretty. If you know, er, you aren't making that apple pie."
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