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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2013 22:48:51 GMT -5
Nathaniel smiles back to her before popping another in his mouth. All the more for him and he knows she’s hesitant to try it again. It was a food that one really had to not think about at first when trying it because even now, it was a bit strange to remember that he was eating something that had eight legs, a giant eye, and a beak. Still it was too good to ignore for him until their actual meals came.
The atmosphere with the laughter and the food is all but disturbing. He feels at home here and he likes it. “Oh it is, I mean it’s old fashioned but so much fun,” and she’s right about him. Nathaniel’s already making a mental note to teach her sometime. “I grew up with it. Dad loves classic rock. So I’ll find myself singing a ballad sometimes,” came his admission.
Nathaniel sets his drink down, “I’m agnostic too. Sometimes, though, I love to go the cathedral here just to listen to the service in Latin. It’s beautiful, one of the most beautiful but hidden things in Gotham. That people in such darkness can find such light still always amazes and encourages me. These rogues, these villains that run amok here they think we’re weak, but if they would just stop and listen they’d realize differently. Hope is hard thing to kill, fire can reignite from the smallest of ashes…” Nathaniel wasn’t sure how her statement had brought that entire thing up, but he means it anyway.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 13, 2013 15:04:41 GMT -5
Once again, Iris finds herself picturing Nathaniel's words in her head, and she can't help but smile. Now she just has to catch Nathaniel singing a ballad at some point! "I was raised on country music," she comments, though the way she says that seems to indicate that she has mixed feelings on the genre. "But most of what I listen to now is New Age - but that's for relaxation," she adds with a smile, "I don't think I really listen to anything in particular when I'm not relaxing - whatever happens to be on the radio. Some of it I enjoy, some of it I enjoy hating." And, naturally, speculating to herself about the psychology of people who would find such music enjoyable.
And she can't help but smile at all the words that her one small statement prompts from Nathaniel - it says a lot about him that those are the thoughts that it prompted, and all of it good. "You're right - no, we're not weak. I think that a lot of people assume that they are, at least in the face of such powerful looking people. But everyone has strength inside of them. And I believe that the good who are too afraid to do what they should always outweigh the bad - all that needs to change is their perception," she says with a nod.
"Perhaps that's what Batman's after," she adds thoughtfully, "But I don't know if his approach will work. After all, what he does seems so extraordinary to your average person - so much so that people have a hard time picturing emulating him even in a small way. But that's the part of me that favors Buddhist ideals - I don't know that I believe that there's some all powerful deity out there, but I do believe in energy. Good energy and bad energy, all of it connecting each of us. And that the way of peace and happiness is to avoid such extremes. Yet here we are, in a city made of extremes." She shakes her head, pausing to enjoy more of her croquette before she smiles and adds, "It's the reincarnation part that I'm more skeptical about."
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2013 17:58:37 GMT -5
At Iris’s smile Nathaniel can’t help but want to cover his face in part embarrassment and part amusement. He can only imagine that she’s now going to try and catch him, but he has no regrets revealing it to her. He chuckles when she mentions country music and then nods. “Yeah, these days, I listen to whatever’s on the radio and I’ve got songs I love to hate too.” Though he too likes to pick apart the music through his own expertise and make observations about the sort of people who make the core group of its fandom.
“A change in their perception,” Nathaniel smiles, “you know most problems can be solved by just that, a change in perspective. Life isn’t cut and dry or black and white, but that’s what I find interesting about it. There is no such thing as monotony in life unless you build your view that way. People always have a strength and you’re right, a lot of people assume they’re weak because they’ve not had someone to show them that their perspective is wrong. The human machine is a plethora of bones, muscles, skin, senses, and a soul and within it all are strengths and weaknesses.” He picks up another ring of calamari.
Nathaniel finds himself laughing around his calamari and as he replies to her, Daryl walks from the kitchen with their actual meal and sits before them. Again Nathaniel gives him a thanks. “I believe in the reincarnation part, maybe not necessarily how badly one is punished, but the point is, energy cannot be created or destroyed, but I cannot see why it cannot be recycled. Every single soul and perhaps it’s a lottery with where we end up, what we face in life.” He shakes his head. “I’m not sure what Batman is doing will work either. As a symbol he is inspiring, but normal people are not capable of what he is. Yet we do live in a city of extremes, maybe we need to see those in order to cope, realize that life doesn’t have to be composed of them.” He shrugs and looks down at their food. It certainly smells delicious.
“This smells amazing,” he said.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2013 4:42:02 GMT -5
Iris nods easily to what Nathaniel is saying, as it's very much in line with what she preaches to so many patients everyday. Her specialization is anxiety, after all, and so much of helping someone cope with that is simply teaching them that they're more powerful as a person than they think that they are - that they're capable of handling whatever their life is throwing at them and that they therefore don't need to live in fear of not being able to manage whatever comes. And she's yet to meet a patient who really was unable to handle their situation, even if they couldn't manage it by themselves - being able to ask other people for help when you need to is a way of handling a situation, after all.
When Daryl arrives with their main dish, Iris takes a moment to admire it a bit. The quail look very much like very tiny chickens, which is somewhat comforting - she's already had her major food adventure of the day, but this looks like a comparatively minor one. Though she doesn't let herself get distracted enough by it to not listen to Nathaniel's thoughts on reincarnation and Batman. Smiling, she laughs slightly as she comments, "Well, it would explain all the people I've met who seem to just naturally be perverse without having any real reason for it - bad couple of lives, maybe?" Because while there are plenty of ill-tempered people who have every reason to be if you look at their history, there are those others... "And if you ask me, the whole city just needs to learn to relax a little," she adds, laughing a little at her own overly simplistic take on the situation - but it's a thought that she really does think has a lot of merit.
But then Nathaniel's words bring her attention back to the quail. "It looks amazing too," she agrees, though she decides to start a bit small by pulling off one of the little legs. Biting into it, she's quick to declare, "It also tastes amazing!" At least she thinks so... It tastes like chicken but not like chicken, and she's not completely sure how much of the difference in flavor is the fact that it's a different bird and how much is the flavorings. But, unlike the calamari, it's a flavor her tastebuds aren't unsure about - it's good stuff!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2013 21:03:13 GMT -5
Nathaniel laughs with her as he surveys the food. The small delicate quail looks thoroughly, but not overly cooked. It’s golden and seasoned and he can’t help but agree. It smells and looks delicious. He takes a leg himself and smiles, “People do need to learn to relax,” he tells her before he bites into it and at Iris’s words he nods with her as he chews. “I’ll have to tell Daryl that he was right. This is definitely very good.” Nathaniel has had quail before and he’s not ashamed to admit this recipe as to be one of his favorites. He takes a bite of the steamed vegetables that came with it and nods in approval as well.
“I think I might have to come back,” he chuckles and then takes in Iris, “though if I were to come by myself it’ll be such a different atmosphere. Nothing like spending it with you. You make the room so much warmer.” He takes to talking to her and politely eating his food. “I still can’t believe I met you at Arkham, but I’m glad I did.” He reached across the table.
His fingers brushed over her knuckles, “I’ve never felt the way I do about anyone than I do about you. You’re amazing, Iris. More than amazing.”
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2013 0:27:08 GMT -5
As delicious as the quail is, Iris has trouble concentrating on enjoying it when she's smiling over Nathaniel's compliments. Not that she's complaining about that. Yes, it makes her blush and a little embarrassed, but she's not going to label it a negative feeling at all. It's sweet, is what it is. And when he touches her hand and she can see the sincerity in his eyes, how can her heart not melt?
Moving her hand to loosely hold his, she couldn't not be smiling now even if she wanted to. "Careful - you'll inflate my ego by saying such things, and then where will we be?" she asks, adding, "And I can't believe I found you there either - I think I literally started working there under the assumption that I'd be the only sane person there, patient or staff. And I'm pretty sure I was right, until you showed up. I think you're not only the most unexpected but the best thing to ever happen to me."
And it's only as she's saying that last part that she realizes that yes, it's true. Well, actually it might face some stiff competition with being born into the family that she has - whether that or her love for him, which is accelerating the healing of the lingering wounds to her heart as he carves his own place within it, is the best thing to happen to her is debatable at this point. Though at the rate things are going, in time there won't be a question about it any longer. And these thoughts cause her smile to turn just a little bit shy.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2013 14:24:23 GMT -5
Nathaniel runs his fingers over her knuckles, never looking away from her. His other hand places his fork on his plate. Sure he hadn’t forgotten the food either, but there are moments to eat and moments to enjoy the mood. He laughs softly and shakes his head. “You with an inflated ego,” he questions innocently, but then smiles softer. “I think you can handle just a little. And we’d be right where we should.”
Then it’s his turn to turn shy. “Best thing, hm? Now you’re just feeding my ego. Dangerous ground there,” he teased. “Unexpected, amazing, you’re a gem and I have to agree…You’re the best thing ever to happen to me.”
And for it’s true. He considers himself lucky to have his father who provided for him and he loves his little brother, but those different feelings than the ones he feels around Iris. In this very moment, he can’t say she isn’t the best thing to happen to him. He lifts her hand to his lips and places a gentle kiss there. Sometimes there aren’t any words for just how he feels in this moment. He knows it’s warm and just as shy as her as he returns the smile, but it’s also deep and comforting. So without word he settles for the gentle action of kissing her hand and hopes it says more than anything he could have hastily put together.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2013 0:27:23 GMT -5
Iris can't help but smile a bit at Nathaniel's reaction to her little joke. Perhaps she does have a bit of an ego, actually, given just how deeply and adamantly she believes that her methods work (and probably better than most of her colleagues, even). But she feels that with an eye towards helping her patients rather than walking around feeling so superior to everyone like a true egotist. And she doesn't see herself as being so smart to have come up with her methods in the first place, so much as she sees herself as the one seeing things sensibly among a throng of people too easily influenced by an outdated status quo - or even worse, people who see the flaws of the status quo and decide that it should be replaced by an even more flawed system. If anything, she's just a person who manages to both think outside the box and remain sane at the same time.
And then she finds herself so flattered by his words and overwhelmed by their meaning that she has a difficult time figuring out how to respond, and before she can do that he's kissing her hand and smiling her like that... For several long moments - minutes or hours? - she finds herself unable to articulate a single thought in her head. No, all she can do is smile with her face noticeably coloring and her eyes switching between shyly looking down and lifting to look at his. When the warm feeling finally starts to fade off enough that she thinks that she might be able to talk, it takes her a couple of tries but even then she only manages, "I don't know what to say..." Oh, but she wishes she did! But the words to express her thoughts and emotions at the moment don't exist - or if they do, she's not enough of a poet to be able to figure out how to put them together. Especially not while she's actually thinking and feeling them.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2013 23:55:16 GMT -5
He actually hadn’t meant to imply she has an ego, but who doesn’t? He’s aware he’s got one and it’s much larger than anyone would probably suspect. He was raised to be confident in himself and stubborn, though time away and time to grow in the environment he had helped him to understand that stubborn can be foolish. He’s adamant, but open, confident, but not an egotist. He believes his methods are notches beyond what his colleagues could do. They’re too busy being closed minded and holding onto the past. Far too many have forgotten to be open to new methods. He’s always pleased to learn and discover more ways to help his clients. He’s more focused on the patients rather than feeling like he’s more superior. He doesn’t feel superior, he feels like he cares and he understands he needs to take more steps up the ladder before he has a right to call out other people for their failures in his field—even if he wants to right now. He is a person who takes what he knows and has learned both in school and through experience and applies it. He thinks inside and outside of the box of this status quo, aims to fix it in a way that is useful, appropriate and not insane. There was enough of that.
Nathaniel himself gets lost in how long he just sits there and observes her because the quiet isn’t awkward, it’s nice and warm and just a bit shy. He turns his hand beneath hers when she finally speaks and squeezes her fingers gently. “You don’t have to say anything. I know and so do you.” He pulls his hand away slowly. And what do they know? Love. They know they love each other. At least that’s what Nathaniel got from it. It’s not something that needs to be said constantly and sometimes just it being said in how they look at and act around one another is the best way it is said at all. He politely picks at his chicken eats his sides. “Would you still like to walk around Robinson Park after this?” He becomes just a bit shy before he finds the words. “Because I was thinking that maybe we could walk back to my place and have a glass of wine together.” And of course he hints at perhaps more. He isn’t sure where it comes from, but it feels right to ask her now. Ask her to stay the night.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2013 1:05:36 GMT -5
Still feeling rather flustered, Iris can only nod in agreement - yes, she knows what they know. And it's a feeling that is at once exciting and terrifying. Because while she's completely certain that Nathaniel is both a better man and specifically better for her in particular than her ex-husband, that doesn't necessarily mean that all will be well. It only means that from her current standpoint everything seems to be going well so far - the future is impossible to predict. Of course, no matter how careful someone is, a relationship of any kind is always a risk, though the more of it they have behind them the more certain she can be of where it will go in the future.
They go back to eating in silence, which she doesn't mind at all - especially since it takes several more moments before her heart settles, and until it does she wouldn't be able to say much anyway. But it has by the time Nathaniel speaks up again. Well, at least until she hears what he has to say and it skips a little bit in nervousness as she catches the hint in his tone. But she smiles through that and says, "I'd love to." Because, nervous as she is, that's the answer she wants to give and it feels like the right thing to say as she says it. And she knows that if she were to wait for all of her worries and doubts to ease, it would literally take decades - if it happened at all. Sometimes you need to set those feelings aside and just go for it.
"Mind if we swing by my apartment again on the way?" she asks after a moment, a hint of hesitation in her voice as the more she thinks about it the more she finds herself wondering if he really did mean more than a glass of wine. But she's pretty sure that he did, and if so it would make things much more comfortable if she had a few things, especially in the morning.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2014 0:14:12 GMT -5
Nathaniel is just going by his gut, of course he consults his brain too and not just the sometimes rash heart he possesses. He doesn’t want to mess up, though he knows there are bound to be disagreements and fights. They happen to all, no matter how great the relationship. But he knows he isn’t her ex-husband, and while he may not know the future or what even the next day will bring, everything so far is going well. He knows that relationships are fragile and some of the strongest can break at the smallest things, but so far everything is as near to perfect as an actual relationship can be.
After he asks the question, he’s not wishing for the silence again, but of course he’s a bit uncertain. He felt it was right to ask, but there’s a chance that Iris, catching his deeper meaning may refuse. Then of course that would lead to embarrassment, not fear that she’d think less of him, but he doesn’t want the date become awkward. If she does end up denying the offer, he’ll understand, he tells himself. He’s confident he would. The last thing he wants is to make her uncomfortable, but when does the opposite and agrees, he gives her a relieved smile. “I was a bit unsure if I should ask,” he admitted, “but it felt right to.” He takes a sip of his lemonade, smiling not in anxiety to get back, but to a return in the mood.
“Your apartment,” he asks and yes it’s with a little confusing, but then he gets it. He nods, “Of course.”
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2014 4:36:15 GMT -5
As Nathaniel mentions his uncertainty, Iris can't help but smile at that - it's a reminder to her that she's not the only one here who wants to be careful with how things happen between them. "It was excellent timing," she says with a reassuring smile, meaning that both in the smaller and broader scheme of things. This is probably a good time in their relationship for that step, and when it comes to the exact timing during the date he asked right when they were in the midst of so many warm feelings. So, yes - excellent timing all around.
And she, in turn, looks somewhat relieved when he understands her request, which confirms that they really are on the same page and also means that she doesn't have to worry about the morning being too complicated. Well, relieved and also still nervous, but she's able to reassure herself that a few butterflies are only to be expected. One of the techniques she often uses with her patients is to think up the worst plausible scenario and then reassure herself that it wouldn't be so bad. And she thinks that the worst one here would be if one of them changed their mind at the last moment. But she thinks that they both could handle that. So though the butterflies stay, they stay at a reasonable size, at least.
Meanwhile, the part of her mind not occupied by the butterflies because it sees things far more logically busies itself ticking off checkboxes of all the signs that they're a good, compatible couple based on just how easy that conversation was. And that also causes Iris to smile because sometimes she thinks that knowing as much as she does about psychology makes her way too analytical even in her personal life. Sometimes, she just can't turn it off... An amused smile comes to her face as she says, "Remind me of what your flaws are? Because while I know everyone has them, I'm just not seeing any of them right now."
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2014 11:37:56 GMT -5
Excellent timing? That fills Nathaniel with even more relief. He’d wanted to be careful and with the warmth between them at the moment he’d ask it had felt appropriate. He returns a less tense smile to her as she gives him an expression of reassurement. He’d been worried it was too soon, but no. He runs a hand through his hair and tucks back into eating the quail.
They are more than on the same page and for his part, it fills Nathaniel with the same sort of nervousness, but it’s exciting. Iris is planning to stay the night and he’s not panicking about his flat. It’s clean, he’s a rather organized person because it gives him something to do. He makes order in parts of his life and it allows him to cope with the chaos of others, but he’s not overly clean. He just keeps up. He enjoys the butterflies and would have been worried if he wasn’t feeling them. Nerves means concern, which means he cares. He smiles at her.
Her question earns her laughter. He too can be too analytic and before he’d asked her the question he’d gone through his own checklist of whether they were compatible enough in his mind to warrant the question. He pushes his plate away, satisfied.
“Well, I’m quite stubborn to be honest,” he begins. “I do have the misfortune that once my mind is made on something strongly enough it doesn’t change often. I have a habit of leaving socks around my floor and I sleep with the television on more nights than not. My hair will probably grow past my shoulders before I cut it again…I can keep going.”
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2014 8:22:38 GMT -5
When Nathaniel pushes his plate away from himself, it prompts Iris to glance at her own meal to see how much she has left. It's far too easy for her to just lose herself in a conversation with him and completely forget about whatever else she's doing, so a part of her is half afraid that she'll find her meal only half eaten and make him have to wait. But no - she finds her plate nearly empty since she'd eaten far more than she'd been consciously aware of. And her stomach has become quite satisfied now that she thinks of it as well.
So as she he speaks of her faults, she's more aware of her meal as she makes an effort to finish off the last of it - though she knows that he probably doesn't mind giving her all the time in the world, she'd rather not make him, so she does pick up the pace. But not so severely that she'd ignore basic etiquette, of course - she has standards.
And she can't help but smile and then laugh as he speaks of his flaws. "You're strong-willed, decisive, don't worry about trivial things, aren't a light sleeper, and want to give me more hair to love? These are flaws?" she asks with a grin, even though she knows that each of those really could go either way. Sometimes even the thing that you love most about a person in the wrong situation is the absolute worst thing... As she mulls that over, she puts one last bite of quail into her mouth - she too is finished. And it really was very delicious, even if she could only concentrate so much on enjoying it.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2014 23:42:31 GMT -5
The meal had been delicious, but like Iris Nathaniel had been paying more attention to her and the conversation, but he was satisfied and that’s all that mattered. He would have given Iris all the time in the world, however, because he wouldn’t trade a single moment with her. Why rush? The night is young, the company is amazing, no he wouldn’t hurry anything.
He laughed, “Well the way you say them,” he said with a playful inflection. “You really like my longer hair? I’ll keep that in mind,” he winks at her and then pulls out his wallet. He sets bills on the table and offers her his hand as he stands.
“Ready,” he asks.
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