Nina Clarke: ᴍᴀʏᴏʀ, ᴀᴜsᴛɪɴ ᴛx & sʜʏ ʙʟᴏʙ (commonlaw) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-09-19 20:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [07] july, nina clarke, yvonne devkopa |
Who: Nina Clarke & Yvonne Devkopa
Where: Nina's office at The Capitol
When: Backdated to July 7, 10AM
What: Yvonne makes Nina's acquaintance while establishing herself as a teacher in Austin.
With renegade outlaws on the streets and no solution yet in sight, Nina was all too aware that Austin's first month of real government wasn't the best time for outsiders to come. What choice did they have, though? Time kept moving forward as much as she wanted it to stand still, and if Austin had any chance at a future, they would need to strengthen their fledgling education system. Over the last few weeks, the LBJ District's Head of Education had stepped up to the challenge of organizing K-12 and post-high school classes and schooling for the entire city. Educators were arriving intermittently, considering how long it took these days to drive down to Texas on back roads and smashed up highways. Nina was looking forward to the first reports to come out of their first real school year, only one month or so away, which would be held in the old UT Austin buildings. And one of those new educators was now at her office -- or so her assistant indicated with a text message. Nina liked to meet as many of these newcomers as her schedule allowed. She moved to her door, opening it to reveal a new face to put to the name in her files. "Ms. Devkopa," she said, extending her hand to her. "Welcome to Austin." A night. She’d been in Austin for a night, and so far Yvie wasn’t overly impressed with anything. Sure, she’d been able to wash up and pull on clean clothes, but the battered and bruised feeling of the trip hadn’t left her as as she sat in the office of one Nina Clarke. Her arms crossed she’d had her eyes half closed when the Mayor walked in, and it had taken Yvonne a moment to really take Clarke in. Gorgeous, with black hair that looked like silk. With the smile of a vixen who had just spotted a henhouse, Yvie stood up and offered her hand back. “Please- Yvonne is fine,” she informed the Mayor. She’d found half decent clothes in the bottom of her rucksacks: a black pantsuit with a matching vest. It was a little wrinkled, but who could blame her for wrinkles when she’d gone through parts of the country that had yet to recover? Parts of the country like Austin. But if a beautiful woman like Nina was her prize for making it across the land and rocks, she’d take it. "Yvonne, then," Nina agreed graciously, though she didn't yet extend the same sort of familiarity in response. Perhaps in time it'd come, but Nina was still a firm believer in professionalism as she continued to feel out her new role. “So, I hear you need teachers. I was a chemistry teacher in Colorado.” Yvie’s stance was straight, hands on her hips. There was something big, tough, and male about her. "We do." Nina led the way over to her desk, taking a seat behind it and the two chairs stationed at its front. She clasped her hands together, crossing her legs at the knee, and studied Yvonne with an appraising eye. That smile hadn't escaped her notice, but Nina had always been excellent at pretending to ignore said things when needed. "Our Head of Education's been doing what she can over the last three years, but it's all been piecemeal and primarily within the LBJ district," Nina added. "Now that the city's moving into recovery, the intent is to resume K-12 classes and higher education for the city as a whole. I'll refer you to her office so you may register as an educator." It sounded so very clinical. Which Yvie appreciated, she really did, but she also appreciated it when the women she was eyeing weren’t so straight laced. Everything about Nina seemed carefully put into place, and Yvonne wanted to know what would happen if she mussed up her hair or pulled at the button on Nina’s cuffs. Would it be like dominos falling one by one, or more like a shipwreck that happened all at once? “I’ll be sure to register then,” Yvie said, tilting her head up. “I did high school before, but I’m not against exploring other age groups. Older. I’m not one for ankle biters. Besides, handling chemicals to small children is generally a bad idea.” A beat. “How long have you been mayor? Austin seems like a city of change, are part of that change?” The little bit of inappropriate amusement Nina gleaned from Yvonne's phrasing was evident on the way she struggled to suppress a smile. But after a moment her resolve won and the serious, steady expression was back. "Three months." Nina wondered, sometimes, if she ought to resign and run in a real democratic race; she'd been appointed as an emergency manager, really, not elected to mayor, and it felt unfair. She was sure one day she'd wake to people clamoring for her to step down. "I don't know the full breadth of what they're saying about us elsewhere," she added, meaning 'about me, "but I've lived in this city for most of my life. There's nothing more I want than for it to be restored." How very diplomatic. Yvonne wanted to know what Nina would sound like if she was caught unaware- if someone were to walk around her and kiss the back of the elegant neck with a brush of her lips. Would Nina blush? Would her already glowing cheeks start to radiate? Yvie didn’t take her eyes off the mayor, even as she began to tap her foot against the ground in an attempt to feel the hardness of the floor. A way to remind herself of what was real, what was there. “Well. I was told this was a place to be a teacher, that teachers were needed. Not much else,” she said. “My traveling companion wanted to come, and well… I survived hell with Delia, seemed silly not to follow along for the next adventure. I’d never been to Texas before this week. I was expecting more cow skulls and cowboy hats.” "Oh!" Nina's expression grew a little more animated, a bit less forcibly placid, at the name recognition. She and Delia weren't close by any measurement, but it helped her put together a sense of who this brash woman in front of her was. "We can use all the help we can get. And as far as cowboy hats are concerned, you'll see plenty of them around the Capitol and out in the Greenbelt. Although their overall aesthetic is less traditional cowboy, more rebel without a cause." She paused then, noticing the time on the wall clock, and turns back with an apologetic smile. This expression, like the one just before it, is a bit more genuine than the ones that preceded it. "I have a meeting I have to prepare for, though, so I have to cut this introduction shorter than I'd like. Let me know how you settle in to Austin." |