[Day 1 - Late Morning] A Late Appointment

[Vala Roke]

"Mmhm," she nodded on that note as she followed with her supposed demonstration by taking her own drag from her cigarette. "I'll admit that it's probably more or less the same on Corellian. I wouldn't say that all of us are Corellia's Finest by any measure, especially when you don't have enough people to police just every block, let alone all the shipyards at once. You get some good ones, you get some bad ones. Some get the idea that you earn more by not doing law enforcement, which obviously leaves us short-handed most of the time.

"Okay," she sounded a bit unconvinced at that. "I'm sure you have some sort of doctrine for some plan when it comes to such a situation? You can't be on the winning side all the time and it seems the Mandalorians have a habit of making people lose as of late. What do you suppose will happen in the next few days?"

[Zeline Koth]

"So which one does that make you then," Zeline said before coyly taking another drag. "You can be honest. Confidentiality in the tent or something?" Not that that even applied in this instance. Therapy, no matter how much she'd taken, had never been within her field of expertise.

"Me with a doctrine? No." Zeline shook her head, thin smile on her lips. "I'm not an officer. It's my job to be sent where they want me. If that ends up killing me, then sucks to be me."

[Vala Roke]

"I try," she said before taking a drag of her cigarette she said before casting an eye of scrutiny on Zeline. "I'd say that I have far more reasons to do good than bad in my line of work. If I was actually crooked, I know that they don't pay me enough to keep the uniform on even if I were running things from the inside. Corellian has no shortage of dark avenues that you can take."

She tapped on her cigarette a few times before continuing the thought, "then again, CorSec had me here for unofficial official business. So I suppose sometimes doing right does ask you to do a little wrong."

"You seem to be okay with that," she said before showing a faint smirk, "not that I really have much room to talk in my circumstance. Not like I picked my assignment."

[Zeline Koth]

"More to a job than the paycheck," Zeline said, eyes wandering to her medical supplies. The sight stung, though, and she winced away and refocused on Vala. "But sure, you're dedicated to doing some good. Lots of opportunities here, such as rescuing a brat."

Zeline shook her head as she waved away some of her own smoke. "Not really. I'm just a realist," she said as if realism equated to abject pessimism.

[Vala Roke]

"Well, yes," she said with a grimace regarding the child. There was going to be some work cut out for her on that front and it was just the morning since their rough landing. Vala supposed that it might have been a blessing in disguise that the child made it off the ship before it crashed, hard to imagine what luck would have for Markos, depending on what the Mandalorian had in store for him... "Never a shortage of work around here that's for sure and I don't intend on freeloading. I'm taking it that you're not exactly tending to my wounds just so I can loiter around here all day, too."

"Right, so how do you find yourself dealing with it, then?" she asked after a drag of smoke. "I don't know if you're exactly married to your job. I get the feeling that you're not exactly thrilled about being here."

[Zeline Koth]

"If you want to stick around all day, then you best be ready to help me," Zeline said with a big grin. "There's operating on patients, of course, but there's always more files to fill out." Better than keeping it all in her mind. She very well knew that her memory was fallible and yet so rarely filled out detailed reports.

"Is it that obvious that I'm not happy about my current situation?" Zeline mimicked the drag, letting out the smoke to a soft haze in front of her. "You're looking at how I cope."

[Vala Roke]

Vala found herself slouching her shoulders slightly at that proposal. "I don't know if I could quite stick around all day. I get the sense there aren't going to be enough hands around the place where files need to be filled out." She gave a glance at her surroundings, wondering if files even needed to be filed out at such a time like this when the doctor didn't even have a formal office at the moment.

"Maybe I can sort a box or two but I can say I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to clerical work. It would be best to get a droid for that," she said as she tapped on her cigarette a few times. "I guess one way, I don't know if that kind of qualifies as a hobby of any sort."

[Zeline Koth]

"I'm kidding. You have a busy schedule ahead of you, don't you?" Zeline gestured towards the gap in the tent. It was easier to send these people away before getting too chummy.

And yet, she seldom had to will to force people out of her presence. "You're not indebted to me is what I mean. I have plenty of work to do, which is exactly why I wouldn't say that I have anything that constitutes as a hobby." Zeline put the cigarette back in her lips to accentuate the joke.

[Vala Roke]

"As busy as everyone else around here. It's not like I have a patrol or a route around here. In times of war, I suppose I have the same standings as Juf the Janitor or Barok the Baker," she gave a shrug of her shoulder, not that it bothered her that she didn't have authority here. Seeing as authority only could go so far in Corellia, it seemed rather expected that she couldn't quite have a pull on people, especially when it came to doing the right thing. "I'm just here to help, at least until I'm able to go home. Wartime life is...not great. Yeah, I'm not going to pretend I'm having a great time here."

"I'd consider doing something else," she said before she took one final drag of her cigarette, or at least that was the intent when she gave a glance at her surroundings to see where she could dispose of the still-smoking cigarette. "I suppose this is better than drinking or gambling. It makes for awkward small time if you ever get a review around here."

[Zeline Koth]

"Well, for standing it really depends," Zeline said before shaking her head. The intricacies of rank didn't matter in a place like this. It barely even mattered in the military anymore after everything the unit had been through. "Juf the Janitor is going to have a lot of work to do nowadays. I'm sure Juf, myself, and the everyone else here appreciates your commitment to keeping things sane around these parts."

There was an obvious ashtray around. It had to be there when she smoked so much. "A review?" she asked, eyebrow raised. "I don't think we're that well off to worry about that quite yet."

[Vala Roke]

Vala moved to crush the cigarette in the ashtray. It shouldn't have been a surprise that Zeline manage to make the tent her home so soon, which she was probably used to doing on her field. "We're all in this together really, so not really doing this for thanks or accolades but I'm sure I'll get a certificate of participation sent to me once this is all said and done."

"Maybe not at this moment," she snickered at that thought as she looked up. "I'm sure we all have plenty of things to do that something like a make-work work like a review won't be bothering you anytime soon. But...The thought of going back to something so boring as that, maybe that's a normal I'm kind of missing."

[Zeline Koth]

"We'll all get a certificate," Zeline said, wincing a bit at the last bits of a cigarette going to waste. She wasn't so low, both in supply and in temperament, to bum a used one though. "It'll either be in our hands or in our caskets."

Zeline pressed her lips together until she couldn't help but chuckle. "How long have you been out here again? Normality is a luxury way back at, well, Corellia and the rest of the Core Worlds."

[Vala Roke]

"I get the feeling that Mandalorians aren't too keen on leaving much to bury. When they aren't hunting bounties, they're more likely to use disintegration, right?" she asked out loud, having little idea of their kind. Vala never associated with their kind, it wasn't her department.

"I'm starting to think it's in the ballpark of almost two months?" she said as she tried to think back. "I think I stopped keeping track when it seemed like it wasn't likely going to happen anytime soon. I don't need to set myself up for disappointment with the Mandalorians are already doing a very good job of that themselves."

[Zeline Koth]

"Regardless of cause of death, it'll be on our file," Zeline said, shrugging. She'd seen plenty of different types of remains, be they recognizable or not. "Yesterday, they tried to chop me to pieces. Did the one who shot you try to disintegrate you? The wound didn't seem like it." Maybe she had been indulging in too many vices...

Zeline shook her head. "Two months, huh? Well, with the way things are going, it'll keep going for much longer. That is, assuming you don't die here."

[Vala Roke]

"No, I suppose not," she said with a slightly relieved tone before waving a hand. "I'm rambling. My life had just been complicated enough dealing with criminals of Corellia. Mandalorians, that's a whole sort of people that I'm not exactly prepared to handle. That said, it is good knowing that they'll at least shoot you in the face directly rather than me needing to look over my shoulder to see if so and so criminal cartel has an inside person or paid someone off."

"And I don't plan to die, if that's obvious enough. If this keeps up, I might have to consider joining up with the Republic military than returning to CorSec," she smirked, making it sound entirely clear that wasn't a prospect that she wanted, as much as she respected what they did in the galaxy.

[Zeline Koth]

Zeline finished the last of her cigarette. Her hand drifted towards her pack but she stopped herself, instead running it through her hair. "Lemme ask you something: have you ever been away from Corellia before?" At first, the question definitely came off as incredulous. However, soon a bit of wonderment set in her features.

"I tend to work best with patients who don't have a death wish. Well, that remark about joining up with the military makes me doubt that, even if you are joking."

[Vala Roke]

"We'll just have to see how often I visit your charming setup, now we will?" Vala crossed her arms and frowned at the line of questioning. "You make it sound like I've never been off the ground and new even handled a ship before. I'll have you know that I'm licensed and certified when it comes to piloting, which is more than can be said for probably 75% of the people who pass through Corellia. That said, I never had reason to leave Corellia until recently."

[Zeline Koth]

"Hopefully I'm due for a renovation soon," Zeline said. "Well, a relocation." She pressed her lips together. "That would also mean I'd need to share the medbay again." As it turned out, most of the other medical personnel did not appreciate a lit cigarette.

Zeline held up her hands. "Right, right, Corellians. All of you are, well, very similar..." Her mood deflated significantly, so much so that she went over to flop down at her desk.

Without looking over, she asked, "How're your pain levels?"

[Vala Roke]

"Very similar, huh? What makes you say that? What makes you the expert all of a sudden?" She asked in disbelief as she narrowed her eyes, there was a bit of exasperation clear in her tone. "And what's this about pain levels now?"

[Zeline Koth]

"Not an expert by any means, actually. My claims are purely based on anecdotal evidence." Despite that, nothing about her demeanor showed any indication of an apology or a withdrawal.

"As for pain, well, I'm a medic. I need to make sure you're in working condition before you leave." The last word came out a bit more stressed than she meant. Again, though, she made no impressions that she would apologize. If she even could, well, was an internal matter.