Dodging inside her cabin, Yas is gone for maybe half a minute before she comes out again and, after glancing at the lounge, steers her steps towards the doctor's quarters.

Knowing that Sushi is waiting, she knocks and enters at the same time.

"Come here often?" she asks with a cheesy grin as she walks deeper into the cabin and looks around, and something catches her eye - a little critter.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know you had company.  I hope I didn't interrupt something?" she asks, sounding completely deadpan serious, and somehow managing to look it too.

"He drops by every now and then," Shui replies, also deadpan.  "He stays for tea, then leaves.  Quite quiet, too - likely as not, you will never notice he is even here."  She smiles.  "Please, come in Yas."

She isn't seated behind the desk.  Instead, Shui has taken one of the chairs in front of the desk.  Standing, she pours herself a cup of tea.  "Regrettably, I have no cocoa.  Should you wish some tea, we have that."  Unless Yas takes some, it will remain untouched - for the moment, Shui is enjoying the scent.

"Thanks.  Ah, I see.  A tippy-toe-tea-totaller," Yas comments, still all deadpan, making certain to articulate well to make sure the jokes comes across.

"Ah, tea is fine.  Too much cocoa isn't good.  Well, it's good, but not good good, if you knwo what I mean?" the ex Marine captain says as she bends down to peek closer at the little thing.

Shui carefully pours the tea.  "Curious little creature, is it not?  It is empathic, and capable of projection.  Quite a clever bit of evolution, in fact.  It's perfectly harmless," she notes, passing a teacup to Yas. "It only eats vegetation."

She sits down again.  "So there was something about which you wished to speak, Yas?"

"Ah, a brainiod, as we called them.  Well, they ate brains or something, but they did seem greckingly friendly up to that point.  So, he's a vegan, eh?  Good to know," the ex Marine comments and chuckles, waves to the thing and turns to walk over to where Sushi sits once more, taking the cup with her.

"Hmm?  Oh, yes.  Well, sort of.  Not sure if you can help, but it's worth a shot.  Well, not a shot as such, but, oh heck, you know what I mean!" she tries to explain, confusing the issue as she tries.  She ends with a chuckle and sips the tea to allow her a moment to collect her thoughs and get them back on track after the meeting with the bug.

"Vegan," Shui agrees, with a small, amused nod.  "Just like me."  There is a wonderful symmetry there.

"But let us set aside diet for a moment."  She leans forward.  "I may not be able to help, Yas, but I will do my best.  Of that, I can assure you.  So - take your time."  The woman is uncomfortable.  Well, everyone is, talking to a doctor.  Especially soldiers - all of that 'suck it up and take the pain' business.

So she waits, patiently, for Yasmine to find the proper words.

"Yeah, like you, and you affect people too, in your way," Yas points out and then scratches the tip of her nose, looking about as if to see if anyone is there.  Since she closed the door it would not have been easy for anyone to sneak in, though.

Then she looks as if she is about to speak, and... scratches her neck.

After a moments silence she appears to start to say something, and... scratches her neck.

Then she sips some tea.

"Uh, well, this is one of those patient-doctor things, right?  It stays between us?" she finally says, although it is probably not much of an enlightenment for the good doctor.

Shui waits.  As long as this takes, she will wait.  Assuming there are no other interruptions, of course.  "Certainly, Yasmine," she responds.  "Though if it threatens the safety of this ship, I will urge you to speak to the Captain."  She sips at her tea.  "Should you choose not to do so, I will still honor your privacy."

Privacy in these matters is critical and absolute.  If it varies, for whatever reason, nobody will confide in her again.  Ever.  And her effectiveness as a doctor will sharply diminish.

Plus, there's the matter of the fact that it simply shouldn't be done, breaking confidences.

<i>Though if it threatens the safety of this ship, I will urge you to speak to the Captain.<i>

With that phrase grabbing her by the hair and running around like a mad monkildeer during mating season and it takes the woman with the generous hair a few moments to gather her wits enough to speak.

"Nah, it's not that bad," she tries, her attention kind of wandering to the vegan bug.  The teacup is held in hand as if uncertain where to go next, the plate or the mouth.

"Probably nothing, really.  Just another war injury making itself reminded," comes the next comment, the eyes returning to the doctor and the cup to the plate.

And then, a silent pause.

Shui raises an eyebrow.  Then she slowly nods.  "Yasmine, I will not bite.  Neither will I tell anyone without your expressed permission.  But," she continues, without a hint of impatience, "if you are to help yourself, I will need to know the nature of the problem."

She leans back in her chair, sips at her tea.  "Neither will I judge you, in any way, shape or form."  That could be a difficult promise to keep, but Shui is all business, now.  She says what she means, and means what she says.

Bursting out in a sudden laughter, Yasmine Crow shakes her head.

"I'd like to see you try to bite anything apart from a vegetable, doc," she chuckles as she calms down a little.

With giggles still escaping her now and then she continues, "We all judge, all the time.  All we can try to do is to get it a close to the real deal as possible."

Still dodging the issue it seems.

"It's nothing major, but who knows, maybe it's old age too.  It's my back, but only sometimes.  Muscle or not, you better tell me, though."

Or maybe not.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:26, Wed 29 Nov 2006.

Shui concedes with a nod.  Of course everyone judges - Yasmine is correct.  It's just what people do with that judgement that is important.  But she grows more serious when Yas explains the situation.

"All right.  It may be nothing, Yasmine.  We will do a preliminary examination, and I'll take some imagery.  Anything I find will be reported to you when I have confirmed the results - good or bad," she notes.

"How does that sound?"

If it is good for Yasmine, she motions the woman over to the examination table.

"All rightie then," Yas says, sweeps the tea as if it had been a quite stronger beverage and chuckles dryly, stands up and moves over to the examination table.

"No new scars since last, though, so no need to document that," she tries to jest as she sits down, preparing for the examination.  There are a fair share of scars on her, even with the armour having been worn most of the time.  Cuts, shots from slug throwers and lasers alike, shrapnel and some burns.

Push and prode.  Scan and examine.  Shui manipulates the flesh, first, with her own bare hands.  After that is finished, she runs a variety of devices over Yasmine's back, checking the area with her electronics to verify her physical findings, and to search for deeper problems.

Finally she is finished.

"You can put your shirt on again, Yasmine," she notes.  "My apologies that this took so long."  Moving away, she studies the holographic imagery on her dataglove's 'screen', runs a closeup or two, then moves to put on more tea.

The amount of scarring on the woman's body is horrific.

"First of all, put your concerns to rest," she says, pouring the steaming water into the pot.  "I find no signs of any disease or neurological degeneration.  In short, the problem is neither terminal nor impossible to ameliorate."  Moving back to the table, she offers the former marine one cup.  "Now that we have leapt that hurdle, let us move on to the problem."

"You have extensive scarring in the area, and my scans detected a piece of shrapnel - glass, by the look of it, which may explain why it was missed by earlier scans.  It was, apparantly, lodged in the BONE, harmlessly.  Recently though, it has come loose."  She shakes her head.  "I cannot speculate as to why.  In any case, now it is causing discomfort.  Painful discomfort, I imagine."  Another raised eyebrow.  "That, coupled with the scarring, is hindering mobility in the region.  I would suggest a small, local anesthetic, and then removal with a quick operation."  Her lips thin.  "I do not know if we have the time now, and would rather not rush.  If necessary, I can give you some mild - very mild - painkillers."

Silent and only moving as asked, Yas waits and watches as Sushi examines her.  Not until it is all over does she speak again.

"Ah, so it's not my advanced age then, at least not yet," she chuckles, putting on the Brave Marine face as she finishes getting dressed.

Taking the cup she sips it and allows the taste to linger before speaking anew.

"So, the little bugger is trying to run away, eh?  As for pain, well, I just hadn't gotten used to that one yet, and it seemed like a good idea to kill some time letting you have a look at it," she says, brushing aside any pain and joking away any other reasons and concerns she may or may not have had.

"Sounds like a plan to me.  A quick, surgical strike, right at the heart of the problem, just the way we did in the Corps!  Keep you PKs, I prefer to be one hundred percent clear.  No offence, of course," she finishes with a crooked grin, sounding perhaps a tad too affirmative.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:50, Wed 29 Nov 2006.

"Insomuch as your 'advanced age' is causing the scar tissue to reduce your mobility...yes, to some extent it is aging."  She looks up from the scans to Yasmine, gives her a wry smile.  "Something we all must face, every day."

"However," the doctor continues, going back to her data, "a regular exercise program will limber you up again.  I suggest Mr. Ogresh's 'class'.  As for the pain killers, no offense taken - I felt reasonably certain you would decline.  Hence my offer of 'mild' drugs."  She looks up again.  "These ones will not impair your performance - they're only slightly more strong than headache pills.  Should that still be offensive, you can try the headache pills, of whatever brand you use."

"Surgery now..."  She glances at her clock.

"Hey, calling me partly old, are you?" Yas grins at the doctor and then shrugs.  "It's life, aging."

Then an eyebrow lifts.

"Surgery now?  Is that necessary?" she asks, not too fond of the idea of letting someone cutting into her on with her approval.  Being shot at and having someone trying to cut you up or blow you up while you struggle against it is one thing, but to let someone hurt you.

"I'm sure it can wait a little, no?  It's not like it's urgent, right?" she tries and shrugs as she glances towards the door, as if she wants to make sure it is still there.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:21, Fri 01 Dec 2006.

Shui nods.  "It is up to you, Yasmine.  Likely as not, nothing will come of it for months.  It is quite possible nothing will ever come of it."  She moves to the desk, begins transferring the files from her dataglove to the computer she keeps for storage.  "Nothing, save possibly a worsening of the pain you feel, and likely an increase in the amount of stiffness in that area of your body."

She looks up.  "I cannot force you to take this surgery, though I reccomend it.  Strongly.  And I will not speak to the Captain regarding it either.  I have given my word.  So the decision is in your hands."  She smiles, there and gone.  "It is a simple operation, with no side-effects and no downtime.  Perhaps a little stiffness for two, three days following."

With a crooked grin that would make a croc blush in envy, Yas shrugs.

"We'll save it for later then, when this is over.  In J-Space it doesn't matter if I'm a bit slower for a day or two," she says with conviction, figuring it will take some time before they actually do jump the next time, and perhaps by then it will all have sorted itself out anyway.

"So," she says and claps her hands together in a gesture of "that's that", the grin turning into a more normal smile as she looks over at the "guests" again, "you got any other vegans or non-vegans hidden in your quarters, eh?  Not that is is my business, but anyway..."

No doubt trying to steer the conversation to another topic.

Shui offers Yasmine a small smile.  "Well, that would be fine.  Please come to see me when you are prepared for the procedure."  There really isn't any more to be said on that subject - it's obviously a point of concern for the woman, and it would be senseless to press.

"These, I'm afraid, are my only guests, and only one of them is vegan, as you know."  She taps the cage with the ferocious-looking beast - it is slowly coming back from its near-fatal poisoning.  "This one is a voracious omnivore.  But then, its species was designed as such."   She looks in on the other one, and smiles into the cage.  "On the other hand, this one is a most impressive example of an advanced organism.  Harmless, vegetarian, it defends itself without harming its attacker by simply rendering itself...friendly and harmless.  Indeed, no doubt it can become 'unpalatable' if it desires, pressing a loss of interest on any potential consumer."

She sighs.  "Advanced, indeed."

Letting the first topic drop, Yas looks at the two guests, beside her.

"Hmm, are you saying being vegetarian makes you more advanced?" she asks, glancing up at Sushi with an inscrutible look, impossible to tell whether she was serious or merely pulling the good doctor's chain.

"If so, why the sigh?" she inquires as well, looking back at the two bugs, trying to decide which one she liked the least, if ignoring the attempted brainwash by the goody-two-shoe one.

"Philosophically, karmically, being of a vegetarian species that uses gentle methods to defend itself makes this creature more advanced than it might have been," Shui replies.  "It harms nothing save the plants on which it feed, and needs very little of them.  Its energy consumptions are minimal compared to carnivores.  It likely spends less time with thoughts of hostility running through its head."

She looks down at the creature in the cage for a long moment, then back up to Yasmine before speaking the plain truth.  "I am envious."

"Not of being this creature, of course," she clarifies after a moment, a small smile on her face.  "But of being part of a species where such things come easily.  I suppose there is a lesson in that - when things come easily, perhaps one does not value them quite as much."  Another wistful look at the small, content animal.  "I should merely count my own blessings, and continue.  Imperfect creature that I am, though, I wish for more."

Listening with a face that reveals no emotions whatsoever, Yas shrugs once Sushi finishes.  A small exhale, nearly huffing, proceeds her words.

"Well, you're less imperfect than me then.  But you do know plants react to pain too, right?  Who knows what they feel," she comments with an attempt at a grin that becomes more of a grimace before turning to leave.

"I'll guess I should get back to my duites now.  Thanks for the tea and the chat," comes the parting words from the Marine who is heading for the exit, face averted and a hand lifting up to open the door.

Unless the doctor stops her it is clear that she will depart.

"Plants react," Shui says quietly, in agreement.  "If I could live without consuming them, I would.  But something must be used for fuel, and as best I know eating plants causes the least harm overall and is the healthier of the two options."

She glances up.  "I do not compare myself to humans, Yasmine.  I compare myself to myself.  Other people's lives are their own business, until they intersect with my own.  Let us not speak of one of us being 'more perfect' than another.  There is imperfection, and there is perfection.  I am of the former, not the latter, as are we all."

She stands, smiling again, seriousness dispelled.  "Good day, Yasmine.  I hope your day goes well."

"Nah, human's are not much to compare anything with, savages and egoists as most of them are.  You have a good day too, Sushi," Yas says before she steps out of the doctor's quarters and heads back to her duties, such as they are.

It is mostly to get away from the surgery anyway, that she wants to leave, as she enjoys the company of that quite sensible if slightly different young woman.  Now, for the next few days she will have to hold a clipboard to keep up the appearance of being busy whenever she is around, as most doctor's seem to enjoy slicing and dicing things, be it patiences or not.