Nina Clarke: ᴍᴀʏᴏʀ, ᴀᴜsᴛɪɴ ᴛx & sʜʏ ʙʟᴏʙ (commonlaw) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-11-18 19:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [11] november, nina clarke, ria otieno |
Who: Nina Clarke & Ria Otieno
Where: The Doughnut Hole
When: 11/6, mid-morning
What: Getting to know each other better.
Though Nina wasn't all that sure what to expect from the coffee date she'd set up with Amanda's friend, Ria, she was certainly looking forward to it. A mid-morning break was a nice change of pace from the routine of meetings and paperwork and discussion -- the coffee and doughnuts were a bonus, too -- and she was awfully curious, too, to learn more about Ria as well as their friendship. Though she and Amanda hadn't officially defined what they were doing, she was hopeful it would eventually turn into more. And if that were to happen, Nina wanted to make the effort to get to know Amanda's friend just as she'd spent time with Demi and Isaac on Halloween. After taking the time to open a tab at the Doughnut Hole for the two of them, Nina took a seat at a nearby table and, once Ria arrived, offered her a smile. It wasn't the one she reserved for political meetings or press opportunities, either; she'd opted for the one she truly meant. "Thanks for setting this up." Ria, if asked, would admit without even a hint of hesitation that she had contacted Nina to have coffee because she wanted to get to know the woman Amanda was spending time with. Even if it wasn’t serious, or nothing had been defined, Ria felt a strong protectiveness towards her friend and because of said protectiveness she felt compelled to find out just what kind of person she was. Though, she had to assume that if Amanda was giving her the time of day, well, she must be both a good person and interesting in some way. On a more selfish level Ria wanted to also make sure that the two of them could be friendly with each other, because if things did steer towards the serious between her friend and this woman she knew there was a high chance she might be seeing more of Nina, and Amanda’s life would be easier if they got along. Thankfully today was one of her few days off, so instead of breezing into the doughnut shop either before or after a long shift at the hospital, Ria was coming from home and was far more relaxed than she might have been otherwise. As she stepped through the door and spotted Nina, a smile was already on her face once she reached the other woman. “I should be thanking you for agreeing to it,” Ria replied with ease, tone friendly. “I’m sure you have a lot of demands on your time,” she continued as she pulled out a chair opposite Nina. “Which is why I really do appreciate you fitting this into said schedule.” Maybe she was going a tad overboard with showing her appreciation for Nina carving out time in her schedule, but after her verbal and social misstep with Pete months ago, Ria had made it a point to filter herself more around people she was only marginally familiar with and had more rumors about than she cared to think about. "And you yours," Nina replied, her smile widening. Overboard or not, she was one to be flattered by pleasantries. "Please, feel free to order something for yourself if you'd like. This is on me." Ria couldn’t hide her surprise at Nina’s generosity and quickly said. “You didn’t have to do that,” still, she found herself pushing out her chair and standing. “But thank you, it’s really kind of you.” Ria added before she made her way over to the counter, ordered and returned with a doughnut and coffee in hand. "Oh, you're welcome. It isn't a problem at all." Now that Ria had food as well, Nina didn't hesitate before she reached for her own doughnut, chewing and swallowing while she listened. “The doughnuts here remind me of a food vendor that used to be stationed outside of the hospital I did my residency at,” Ria commented as she sat back down. “I’m pretty sure I singly handedly kept them in business.” With a laugh she shook her head. “But, I didn’t invite you here to reminisce about old stomping grounds,” she lifted the cup to her lips to take a sip of her coffee before she asked. “How are you today, Nina?” "I'm doing well, thank you." Nina was curious about where Ria had grown up, but as per her request she tabled the conversation topic for perhaps a little later in their meeting. "Luckily, November's proving to be much less busy than the last two months, for all the right reasons." Of course, there was never a shortage of things to do, but she could almost say that they were out of endless catastrophe mode. November was proving to be much calmer than the last two months, almost boring even. Ria was in fact not complaining about that though, she thought everyone needed a bit of a breather -- or at least something marginally more normal than what they had been dealing with of late. “I think we’re all thankful that November has not followed the trend of September and October,” she remarked with a ghost of a smile. “I know the hospital is running much better now that it’s back at full strength.” Ria had insisted on being briefed as to how the last two months had gone in the ER while she had been in quarantine and she was pleased to know that her ER could run without her, though she never wanted to put them in that position again. "Good. I'm glad to hear that the hospital's back to normal." Nina didn't think it needed to be stated that the new normal of UMCB was in better shape now, even when it'd lost a number of its staff to the quarantine of the past two months, when compared to any time prior to June 2019. Even though the shelter had enjoyed more provisions than other parts of the city, they'd still been in a long-running crisis. But she didn't come here to talk shop; rather, she wanted to get to know the woman in front of her. "And I'm looking forward to the holidays coming up. Will you be spending them in Austin, or do you have family elsewhere?" At the mention of the holidays Ria smiled. “I have family in Denver, but I’ll be spending the holiday here in Austin,” she started. “My brother is here, along with my mother and step-father.” It would be hard not to spend the holiday with her dad and his husband, but realistically it didn’t make sense for them to travel from Denver. Especially not with Christmas right around the corner as well. “Do you have any plans for the holidays?” "I'll be spending both of them -- Thanksgiving and Christmas -- here, I believe." Nina reached for her coffee and took a long sip, ever grateful for the small luxury of regular caffeine. "I'm a native of the city, and I was fortunate enough to have my family make it through the initial uprising as well." She didn't elaborate on how, for a long while, she'd thought her brother had passed away. She and Ria weren't quite at that level. "It'll be nice to have a real holiday season." Ria smiled softly. “That is quite a fortune,” she started. “Although mine isn’t all here in Austin, I can say I’m one of the lucky few who has made it through the uprising with my family intact as well,” So few could claim that that Ria knew she was beyond lucky in that regard. “As an outsider to the city I think it will be interesting to see how Austin might celebrate the holiday season differently than Denver does,” Again, Ria knew she was lucky as hell to have been allowed to live a relatively normal post-apocalyptic life. “From what I’ve seen and heard from my patients in the emergency room, this city is long overdue for some holiday cheer.” For a moment she let their conversation fall silent as she weighed her next words, aware that Amanda and Nina were not official on any level and also very much keeping their relationship quiet. “It might also be nice to have some new faces seated around the dinner table during the holidays.” That was as close as Ria felt comfortable alluding to what the woman seated across from her might mean to her best friend and vice versa. After all, it was never easy to know just who might be listening. "It would be nice." Nina didn't think she was necessarily a guarded person, just private -- though she'd learned to be more careful about who she talked to over the event of the last year. There was still a natural secretive instinct to get over, though, despite the fact that she knew Ria knew about her and Amanda. For all intents and purposes, Ria's knowledge was the reason why the two of them were sitting in the Doughnut Hole that morning, rather than in their respective workplaces. So she added, careful to not use any specific names while out in public, "But it'd need to wait for the future, as I think we'll be spending it separately this year." Amanda had already told her of her plans to go home for Christmas, and there was only a bit of disappointment in Nina's voice as she relayed those plans to Ria. Ria gave a nod that she hoped indicated she understood just who the other part of “we’ll” was. She couldn’t personally imagine trying to navigate a relationship or even just seeing someone, so subtly. In that she didn’t envy either woman, though her hope was that if this turned into something more both might be able to be a touch more open about things. Politics had never been her thing, most of what she knew about the political world was thanks in large part to Amanda, so she also didn’t feel as if she were in a position to give advice or make suggestions. “At least you can assume with some certainty that there will be a future in which to wait for,” Ria commented with a small smile. “And sometimes that anticipation for things such as that makes it worthwhile.” "Yes… I suppose that's true." Nina hadn't actually noticed the slip; she and Amanda hadn't even discussed their relationship status, let alone the longevity of such a thing, and she couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed that she was so clearly looking for it to be a long term thing. Of course, no one ventured into something like what she and Amanda had without hoping for it to last for a while, but she was still a person who grew flustered by emotion. Perhaps she was more guarded than she thought. She changed the subject swiftly, without warning, though she hoped her doing so wouldn't be too obvious. "And you? Do you see a future for yourself in Austin?" The change in subject was swift, but Ria didn’t comment on that fact. She knew just from what Amanda had told her that whatever was going on between the two women was still in it’s infancy and she respected Nina’s desire not to linger on it -- even if they had been speaking in vague tones. With a smile that only just barely turned of the sides of her mouth, Ria considered the other woman’s question for a long moment. Her best friend was here, the majority of her family resided here, Luc was here, though she had yet to know if he would be more than what he currently was to her. Plus, she knew as well as anyone else in her field that any other city would not give her the same kind of position she currently held at the UMCB. “For now I think I do,” Ria finally answered. “My career has advanced quite a bit while here, more so than it would anywhere else, and I think Austin might be growing on me.” The two stays in quarantine notwithstanding, she really was rather fond of the city now. “Plus, someone needs to stay here and keep an eye on my baby brother.” Ayo kept out of trouble, probably more than she did in all honesty, but Ria still couldn’t imagine moving back to Denver and leaving him on his own. "The city has its way of doing that. Besides, it's easier to make your own opportunities rather than try to find them, sometimes." Nina finished the rest of the coffee as she listened to the rest of Ria's response, then set the cup aside. "I know the feeling of looking after one's sibling all too well," she replied, a knowing smile settling on her lips as she thought about her wayward younger brother. "What does your brother do here in the city?" “Younger brother or younger sister?” Ria asked curiously, hoping she was okay in asking a more personal question like that. Nina’s words, tone and smile had alluded to the fact that she might know what it was like to be a protective older sister. Then realizing she hadn’t answer the other woman’s question about Ayo, she added. “He’s a soldier here in the city,” Ria paused. “I worry about him more than I should, but I also know what the soldiers are doing for us daily,” each time he left their shared home Ria would send up a small prayer that she wouldn’t later be seeing him enter her emergency room in need of fixing up. "Brother, too, for me. His name is Kevin." Nina paused for a moment, thinking through the faces of the soldiers that she'd met, before coming to the conclusion that she hadn't met one that could bear a physical resemblance to the woman in front of her. "I don't think I'll ever not worry about him, or my family. Even if our world wasn't like this, I think I still would. But I suppose that's what family's like, no matter what." At least, it was the definition Nina wanted to live by. Ria smiled softly. “Little brothers really can give their big sisters a lot of gray hairs, huh?” it was something she had told Ayo for years. It probably didn’t help that there were so many years between them, sometimes she felt more like a second mom than a big sister. “You and I think very similarly on that front,” Ria said, knowing she had spent many nights up worrying about her family, and she was sure that her family had done the same in regards to her while she had been over in Africa. “Maybe that’s why we’re all given family, so that we know there’s someone out there thinking about us?” Ria knew that not everyone was lucky enough to have a complete family, or even people in their lives who cared, but when a family worked, this is what she thought the reason behind having one was. "Maybe so," Nina agreed, a soft smile crossing her face as she thought about all the things she'd done for hers, the sacrifices her parents had made for her and her brother, how Kevin had saved her from those zombies when they'd reunited. And she could extend it further to the family of friends she'd developed over the last few years here in Austin. She hoped that eventually, Ria would be able to create her own found family in the city as well. "I like that definition. It's very wise; I'll have to start using it, myself." There was a weird sense of pride that washed over Ria at Nina’s compliment about the way she viewed family. In truth it had been something she had picked up in Africa, especially on nights when she had felt especially lonely. It was comforting to know that her parents, or her brother, were out there thinking about her. “Admittedly I also use it to try and talk myself out of doing dangerous things,” sometimes it didn’t work, but other times it did. When you thought about the people who would miss you in the world, it made a person pause before recklessly jumping into something. “Though I suppose dangerous things find us more easily now than they did before,” Ria added, all to aware of her two stints in quarantine since she had come to Austin. "I wouldn't know that particular urge," Nina replied amiably. She was too much of a workaholic, and one who enjoyed quieter hobbies to boot, to empathize directly with Ria's words, but there was no judgment in her tone. "What sorts of things does it lead you towards?" “It led me towards Africa once,” Ria began a fond smile forming as she thought about her time with Doctors without Borders. “I worked in the Republic of the Congo with Doctors without Borders,” a pause. “That’s where I was when the outbreak hit.” Some days she missed the challenge and the adventure that time in her life had provided her with, but Austin had it’s own set of challenges and adventures that she was coming to enjoy. Her smile faltered and then turned into more of a grim expression as she added, “Or sometimes my thirst for adventure convinces me that getting a soldier to take me out into a dangerous city is okay,” Ria couldn’t blame the soldier that had taken her, she had been quite convincing at the time. “It’s not, for the record. Things like that will fifty percent of the time lead to a quarantine stay,” another pause. “Which mine did. I might own the record of the most quarantine stays in the span of less than a year.” The laugh that came with that remark was humorless, though Ria was trying to have a lighter take on her misfortune. "I suppose there's a time and a place for caution," Nina replied, attempting diplomacy as best as she could and hoping she didn't come off as judging Ria's experiences for what they were or weren't -- especially since she didn't know all that much about any of them. She'd never been one for recklessness, but she supposed she'd seen a fair bit of danger over the last year or so. Of course, none of it had been willingly undertaken, but in the long run that fact didn't mean much. She reached for her coffee and made a face once she remembered it was empty. "I suspect adulthood's a lot of sorting out what kind of caution's necessary and when, and on your own. Instead of that independence that seemed to exciting when you were young." Nina laughed then, shaking her head. "At least, that's what mine's been like." Ria smiled softly. “There is, unfortunately I just never seemed to have learned the right time for caution,” she paused. “Well, outside of the emergency room that is.” While Ria might take every risk she could in her own life, when someone else’s was placed in her hands she was a cautious as could be. She took the oath to do no harm very seriously. “I don’t think it’s just you,” Ria began. “I feel like adulthood is a lot of just trying to sort out everything, caution and otherwise,” she continued with a laugh. Though maybe it was only her that seemed to struggle on some level with getting aspects of her personal life in order. School and then work had always been easier than relationships. “Being an adult really should come with manual,” Ria said with a upturn of her mouth, a smile that held a lot of humor to it. “Though as a perfectionist I fear I would go to the extreme if I had a physical handbook on just how I should be adulting.” "A perfectionist with a streak of danger, then?" The two sounded entirely at odds to Nina, someone who could sometimes identify with the former but never the latter, but who was she to judge? "I prefer situations in which I know what to expect, personally -- and, ideally, situations in which I have a chance of having the upper hand." (All right, maybe she could frequently identify with the former, instead of simply sometimes.) "Though I suppose given the right circumstance and any or all needed information or mastery of relevant or needed skill, any situation could be turned into something like that." Ria laughed. “I suppose that is the easiest way to describe me,” It didn’t make much sense when someone looked at the two traits on paper, but her whole life she had both pushed herself to be the best and also always had that little itch inside of her that wanted to be independent and explore. If some of that exploring lead to danger, well, she had never been prone to shy away from that either. “Don’t get me wrong, I like situations that I can predict and also feel like I have some level of control in,” she paused. “But I’m also in emergency medicine, so I had to loosen my grip on those desires a long time ago.” Because as much as doctors tried to predict outcomes, sometimes fate or mother nature had a different plan entirely. She considered Nina’s final words and gave a nod of agreement. “I think you’re right in that given the right circumstances and information any situation could end up in that category.” Ria paused. “Maybe I try to allow myself to seek adventure because if I don’t I’ll end up trying to micromanage my whole life.” She laughed. “I mean I created a life plan when I was in grade school.” "A coping mechanism, then, of sorts." Framed that way, Nina could almost understand that sort of attraction to adventure. After all, hadn't nearly all of her friends expressed to her -- and more than once, at that -- the idea that she ought to find something to balance out some of her other controlling tendencies? While she still felt no interest in taking on a dangerous hobby and, in truth, found herself at a loss for what even was a plausible sort of dangerous hobby, Nina was beginning to come around to the fact that she could use some sort of evening out. Either way, it was a new perspective, and one for which she was thankful. "I'm sure you must have some other tidbits of wisdom to share," Nina added, shooting a commiserating sort of smile across the table at Ria. "Good thing we've still got some time today." “That is a good thing indeed,” Ria replied with a gentle laugh and a small smile. “Though I’m not sure I have anymore wisdom to share.” she tacked on as a warning. Still, she was pleased that they still had time to chit-chat some more as Ria was beginning to understand just what her friend saw in Nina. |