Star Trek: Starbase 777

In its lack of adornment, the room about Seito brought to mind her present object in life. Equally blank, expansive — indeterminate prospect in all that stretched ahead. She felt no ownership of these walls, feeling ownership now over very little indeed. Her possessions spoke to this, few enough that she had been able to fit everything within one box; a few handmade vases, perfume bottles, and squares of embroidery within which her counselling efforts thus far made manifest. Seito was to put her hands to inconsequential work, mindless activity. Still, the woman found herself consumed by every threaded intricacy, frantically unpicking the entire effort if it was in any way headed for imperfection. How telling. Now, she sat cross-legged upon the bed, quiet and contemplative. One such vase had been partway unwrapped, cradled then in the dark satin lap of Sakura's skirt; by its tactile memory, she had been compelled to ruminate the far wall. How long she had been sat there, wordless, she could not say.

It was quite ironic, to Victoria's mind, that her first order of business after familiarising herself with her department would take her to a completely different section of the station entirely. But, it seemed her colleagues and their rooms had been overwhelmed enough for the day, and so here she was, on a house visit. With her head angled downwards to the PADD she held displaying Seito's medical record, she arrived at the door she was after, fortunately not getting lost along the way this time! 'Ding!' rang the bell.

A small part of Sakura welcomed the chime, whose cadence drew her with considerable force from the trance she'd constructed about herself. It was doomed to linger yet, it seemed, as glancing up from the bed Seito affected a look of puzzlement. Her roommate did not appear to be in, and she had at first welcomed this fact quite happily — now, her aloneness felt comparably stifling. For a moment, she waited unmoving. Perhaps the visitor would admit defeat, leave accordingly. Perhaps, the visitor in question was in fact her roomate — why chime one's own living space? Thin brows drew to a pronounced furrow, and she rose from the bed. "Come in," rang her voice, cautious and silken-sounding. Seito stood herself between her own room and the shared space, made miniscule by the dimly lit space around her. It was here she stayed, appropriating the stillness of her surroundings that it was almost eerie, slender hands joined neatly at her front.

And enter she would, scrolling to the very end of the file and then straight back to the top in one swift movement of her finger. Dressed in scrubs and a plain white coat, it seemed Victoria had ditched the uniform at the earliest opportunity. She glanced up and around the room, the business end of her gaze eventually resting upon Sakura. She failed to remember to smile. "Commander Seito? I'm Doctor Bishop, for your scheduled physical?" she greeted, temporarily lowering her PADD in courtesy, but only for a moment. She waited for the sound of the door sliding shut behind her before moving forward. "If you could go ahead and spell your last name for me?"

"Mm?" Large, dark eyes set to blinking; if employed with enough vigour, perhaps this 'Doctor Bishop' might be united with the wall in obscurity. Could she dispel the medic away into the gloom, set upon the line she could not quite discern between real and fake — she would. "S-e-i," aha, that was it. Scheduled physical. Standard. Non-invasive enough to be conducted here within her own living quarters. Partway through the spelling of her own name, the thought compelled Seito to laugh. Demure it sounded, and thus all the more discordant. "T-o," she concluded. Each consonant was unnaturally drawn out from behind the hand that had risen to her mouth in something akin to shyness. If such a thing were true, it was belied in the glint to her gaze; unmoving from Victoria, she regarded the woman closely, head inclined. "What strange formality is this? I suppose you have my name written out right there, Doctor, do you not? How might I return the favour," Sakura broke into a coquettish smile, dimpling her cheeks. "Spell yours aloud in turn?"

Victoria had her head lowered again as Sakura began spelling. Fortunate, for as the laughter began, her brows would furrow and her eyes would narrow, irises moving slowly from left to right - the entire movement would be barely visible, and hopefully not too noticeable. Not even a week into arriving and she was already being handed the strangest of patients. Perfect. Perhaps it was a hazing process. “B-i-s-h-o-p,” she ran through the letters in quick succession, then moved on to an explanation, of sorts, “well, we wouldn’t want someone else taking your physical, would we? So- I like to trust, but verify.” Victoria tapped on the tablet to bring up the checklist to begin the process. She sighed softly, and looked up again, doing her best to appear professionally neutral. At least the case was an interesting one. She continued, a rehearsed, scripted quality in her tone as she made her way through her usual preamble, “well, I’m sure you know how it goes - just a few questions and a couple of scans, and I’m outta your way. If you have any questions or anything you’d like to declare before we begin, now’s the time. Please have a seat.”

Seito was contented by this, or it appeared so when her smile failed to falter. * "Perhaps I would prefer that," *she pursed, in allusion to the Victoria's suggesting that somebody should take her place. Again, this was presented in a coquettish manner, and thus a haze was drawn over Sakura's intent. Of course, it was true — she wanted nothing less than to be subjected to this same old exercise of evasion. It had fast become tiring. "But that is not how it goes," Seito mused, matter-of-factly. Remorse was kept at bay, though it swelled within her even so. "This is only your job, of course. I do not wish to be cause for inconvenience." And so the officer sat, elegantly, as though her thinking aloud had been a self-facing effort of persuasion. Willowy as she was, the couch all but consumed Sakura, awash with cushions and watchful still. How strange this all was proving. Rather than ask a question as encouraged, she merely extended a thin arm outwards, to the couch adjacent. "I would rather you not loom over me," sounded in her soft-spoken manner, complete with that same upturn of lips, "you can imagine it is quite disconcerting."

Bishop had taken the the declaration of this being 'only' her job as a bit of a dig; it was only because this had temporarily become a place of work, and the fact that Seito did outrank her, that she held her tongue from the witty retort that she was, no doubt concocting. In its stead, a moment of awkward silence, a momentary flash of a disapproving look. She cleared her throat, and fished a medical tricorder out from her pocket. "If you insist," Victoria nodded, making her way over and taking the empty space beside Sakura, one foot crossed under herself so she could prop herself up just a little, and to allow her to face Sakura proper. At least she had the courtesy to kick off her shoe before doing so. "Aaalright, I hope we're getting comfortable," she half-joked, raising the tricorder to begin her scans. "Have you travelled out of Federation space recently? You know, for vacation, work, covert operations?"

"I insist." Thin brows quirked, Sakura regarded the discarded shoe. The look harboured only a glimmer of contempt, and nothing more; she sat otherwise upright, affecting a readiness to comply. The scientist's expression was redirected towards Bishop herself upon mention of covert operations; her smile grew sly, brow inquisitive. "Answering would rather defeat the object of their covertness, do you not agree?" It appeared to be a question posed rhetorically, for she left no scope for any response. "I have not travelled beyond Earth in the past twelve months," she offered, adopting an airy indifference, "if that is a sufficient answer." If Victoria was comfortable, Seito was failing to arrive at similar ease. Not that her exterior portrayed any such unrest; outwardly, her slight figure sat serene as ever, cutting a silhouette of absolute calmness. How deceiving looks could be! "You yourself," she crooned, head inclined, "have you the desire to travel? Some people, they find it troublesome remaining in one place."

"For someone who doesn't really look like they want me to be here, you ask a lot of questions," Victoria pointed out, marking Sakura's response on her PADD. She smirked slightly to herself, "Used to, but I've done enough travelling for awhile. Not like the Starbase is going anywhere soon, mm?" She checked the progress of the scan on her tricorder, and leaned off to the side against the pillows of the seat, noticeably more casual than Sakura was presenting. Then again, Victoria wasn't the one being scrutinised at the moment, routinely or otherwise - and with the addition of the woman's longer-than-usual medical record, she supposed the apprehension made sense enough. It was that very same apprehension that stopped her from commenting, even encouragingly, on those records, as curious as she was. Perhaps later. "Everything looks normal so far... any recent illness, injury, and/or treatment since your last physical that we should be aware of?"

"Is it that you find my curiosity to be off-putting?" A coy smile, her tone once more indicative that no answer was necessary. Seito consulted her lap, cheeks dimpled still, "I may look one way, and feel another; perhaps that thought puts you at similar unease. I shall keep from questioning you further, in that case, and remind you that your presence here is a welcome one. Only, who is to say that words are not similarly misleading as looks," she mused after a beat, in such a cadence that implied the words' newness to her, spoken as they appeared in the now. "Aha, forgive me — I have asked you another question," a consecutive self-induced bout of gentle laughter, at which Sakura felt compelled to reacquaint her gaze with Bishop's, unreadable. "It is only that you present to me, Doctor, matters I find most intriguing. 'Normal', for example. Things do look normal, and yet they seldom are," the scientist tilted her dark head of hair, having become apparently pensive. She shortly dispelled the thoughtfulness, reassuming a polite smile. "No. Nothing of note that you do not already see before you."

"You did. Ah, no, I don't, not really. It's just, thing is, Commander, this sorta thing isn't meant to be about me," Victoria explained, offering a slight smile directed toward the reassurance as she shifted her weight around, "some... conditions don't show up the best on the scan, that's why we ask questions. It's a lot easier if we talk about you, to make sure we aren't missing anything." Victoria took a moment to record the answer, and for her own sake to have a quick scroll through to see if there was anything she'd missed in Sakura's file. Then, in the moment, her mind latched onto something Sakura had said. She began, with concerned curiosity, "take, for example, your comment... everything here looks normal, wanna help me out with what isn't?"

Was she squirming? Seito cared not to contemplate, nor give voice to her private amusement. She merely nodded her head in a gesture of compliance, and thought instead about the couch's dimensions that enveloped her so. Thus, a thoughtful silence ensued, curated less by Bishop's prying, and more the zen-like remove from it Seito felt in wilting against the array of cushions. Further, and they might consume her whole; no more questions, not from either side. "Sorry," a wrinkle formed between brows as Sakura willed herself from the trance she'd landed in. Impressed upon the woman's features was concern — a fair-weather friend. Volatile, and to be treated in the most fragile of manners. She affected unknowing, dark eyes newly widened. "Oh, I don't know. We are told not to overthink things; the occasional headache, cramp in the leg. I am generally of ill health, that is well-evident — there is no more to it. If there was, or is, you might be the one to enlighten me. Perhaps you are not confident enough in your own ability, Doctor," she cooed, coy as ever in her accented lilt, "but this is not meant to be about you."

Victoria didn't seem all that enthused with the answer provided. Something itched at her that she wasn't being given the whole truth, then again, that might've just been Sakura's demeanour in general. She seemed the type to have a knife hidden in the couch cushions after all- she stopped herself, she wasn't here to judge. Not the person at least, she definitely had some not-so-nice thoughts about the words. "That's nice, that's funny," she pointed the tricorder, briefly and accusatory, towards Sakura's head. "You... know I'm only asking for your own sake, right? Better prevention than cure, but I'm sure its nothing you haven't heard before, either." Bishop made a face. Where was she? Question 2. This was going well. "Right," she sighed, "along the same line, any conditions you've happened to develop that aren't on file?"