Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had been a long time since Scarlett set foot on the island that had turned her entire world upside down. The moment she had reentered her room it had felt like one of those lucid dreams, impossibly real but completely foreign all at once. Everything was as she had left it years and years ago; bare, bland, and minimal. She hadn't even bothered to unpack her meager collection of things yet - the pale haired woman just didn't honestly believe that her reassignment could be something so simple as 'return to base, train'. There was always some new grunt task to complete in a nearly uninhabited area of the world, some new and useless command to sink her time into.

Could they really mean for her to be more than part of a build-your-own-base expansion pack after so many years?

The unease in her vibrant eyes was nearly tangible as she made her way from the bare dorm room to the infirmary, moving like a ghost in the backdrop of chattier, more lively groups of hunters. No one stopped or bothered her and for that she was eternally thankful. Her relative lack of knowledge about the organization that doiminated her entire life was a sore spot she didn't often like poking fingers at.

By the time she made it to the infirmary she was filled with both a sense of relief at escaping any attempts at conversation but also a deep dread because now, despite her luck, she had to talk to someone. That was how appointments worked. Her eyes found a man that looked both overworked and somehow excited as she walked through the door.

"I'm Scarlett Voliva, I'm here for an exam. Are you who I'm supposed to meet?"

Scarlett loathed assessments. It amped up her resting b***h face by three notches and had her awkwardly lacing and unlacing her fingers where her hands hung together below her waistline. For all that she had been a part of the organization for many, many years it seemed that she was still not quite comfortable in what should have been her home, of sorts. As he peered over the top of her chart at her, she shifted and shrugged both shoulders as her initial answer to the lingering question in his words.

It was fine, she reminded herself, this was his job.

"Just orders," she admitted finally, loosing one tattooed hand so that she could reach up and tussle a head of thick, white hair. It was loose and wild around her tanned face - she rarely saw battle or training and had long since stopped bothering to tame it when she wasn't working. "I'm not the best fighter, or at least I have to assume as much. I've been much more.. useful away from whatever goes on here."

Her other hand waved dismissively at the air as she leveled her vibrant, acid green eyes on his much paler ones. At least he wasn't overly energetic or judgmental (yet) - it made it easier. Some of her RBF subsided and she relaxed into her bones, seeming fractionally less unnerved beneath his assessing gaze.

"Is this not usual?" She paused, worrying over the generic question in her words, and then amended: "I mean people that travel around for years and then get reassigned out of the blue?"

Scarlett nodded at his answer though her teeth continued to worry at her lip, even as she finally crossed the few feet separating her from the examine table and pulled herself up onto it. The slight elevation of her eye level did nothing to make her feel any larger in his presence; in fact, with her legs hanging over the edge and her feet dangling well above the ground, she felt a bit like a child sitting before him. One more tiny frustration.

"No," she answered immediately. Then, almost as if she couldn't stand the notion of lying even by omission, her face fell a bit and she sighed out her amendment. "Actually, yes, kind of. It just gets stiff and uncomfortable in cold or stormy weather. Nothing that I've ever been worried about."

Except that her weapons depended on dexterity and she had completely and utterly been concerned when she still thought she would see the front lines one day. She let her eyes drop to her feet as she processed the thought, jumping to conclusions in a way only her anxiety could. It was a funny thing to be left mostly alone with no alarming deadlines. It saved a lot of time for thinking.

After a moment of listening to his pen scratch on paper, she looked back up through the fringe of her white bangs to stare at him. He was nice enough and at least trained well enough not to exacerbate her lingering anxieties. It made her relax, just a fraction. Both hands went behind her, palms flat to the table, so that she could prop herself up while she waited.

"Good to know you find something interesting in that file, though."

Undoubtedly, he would have seen the repodding just after her induction, too.

Scarlett nodded along at his recommendation, finding no reason to argue with the idea of physical therapy. She had nothing better to do on this island and at least that was something to focus on - apart from getting reaquainted with her frustrating weapon and actually committing to being a helpful, strong combatant.

Her bright eyes followed Zeke as he moved closer, lighting on the file he set aside with curiosity. There were a great many things she didn't want anyone to see, for sure, but there was an even greater question of what exactly the organization felt was relevant. What did they know or, more accurately, what didn't they?

It was only as he sat down on the stool and turned his hazel eyes up to her that her attention drew back and she processed what he had said. It made her crack​ a weak, one-sided smile for his benefit but the narrowing of her eyes suggested that she was considering him now as closely as he was considering her.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Zeke. Hasn't anyone ever told you that before?"