Pleased to meet you. Hope you’ve guess my name…
Who: Schorin, Merry, Rakka, OPEN
What: An opportunity to get to know my character (and some of the others here). Nothing plot specific.
When: March 21th, 2008
Where: One of the cell rooms in the brig.
Rating: TBA
Status: Incomplete
Notes: THE DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO BETTER CONTINUITY AND A PLOT HAS BEEN DEVISED.
Schorin had been in the cell over three months now, surviving only by Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard’s plan in keeping him fed. Each time he would offer some information he thought might be useful and in return they kept him fed. He was unsure if he had gained any trust or not. All he knew is that they would not let him die and they would not let him go. He could only assume that if he had earned trust completely they would have let him go not worrying that he knew the exact location of their second hand city. But they were not that foolish. Truth be told, if Schorin were caught by members of his fellow species the first thing he would do to insure his own survival would be to offer all the information he knew about these humans. If they were smart, they would keep him here forever.
Right now, though, all Schorin knew was that the cell was getting very old. A discarded copy of a book the humans called “War and Peace” was flopped in a corner having been read a few times through. The written language took a while to understand but he did confirm that it was based on sounds as apposed to a pictorial or symbolic language. From there it was a simple matter of comparing the regularity of certain words spoken to him with the regularity of those same written words and assuming the rest. It took him a good two days to finally realize letter sounds of the word “the” but after that had been discovered the rest came out very easily and within a week he’d been able to decipher most all of the obese book. He reread it again when he’d figured out the words. That all had only lasted him a few weeks, though.
He’d discarded his boots a while ago “making himself at home,” as it were. He thought he caught some disdainful looks from his guardians, but couldn’t find it in his heart to care. The ground of the cell was cool against his feet. The feeling of it kept him grounded.
He discovered that if he bore down hard enough the sheath in his finger could scratch a thin line in the floor of the cell, barely scratching the surface but scoring it just enough to see. He practiced writing in the corner of the cell and when that grew tiring he started to divide the cell up into the golden mean, a process in which the rectangular cell was split by the thin line into a square and another rectangle which was, consequently, split again into a square and rectangle and etc. in a mathematical equation which went on for eternity. Currently he was drawing lines in the middle of the room trying to finish his geometrical artistry as small as he could make it.
Tales from the Lost City Found 
((OOC: The actual story of how and why Merry will end up here will be covered in the AU thread, but I figured we might as well get the ball rolling here … All you really need to know at the moment is that Merry — PB Billie Piper, but with an American accent — and Rakka, a very big red-and-white-furred adolescent telepathic wolf-creature, have just suddenly appeared in the cell, near the door and facing the entrance.))
Merry scowled as the scene before her changed. A few things moved around, she could understand, being a different day and all, but this?? “How the hell did we end up in a cell in the brig?” she asked the device on her wrist accusingly.
And who were the marines standing before her? …. Pointing guns at her and Rakka? She didn’t recognise them. Well, not that she had ever gotten to know any of the military contingent very well …
The giant weretiew let out a low growl, and Merry laid a hand on the wolf-like creature’s head, which was a bit of a trick since the top of Rakka’s head, when raised, was level with her shoulder! (Of course, her head was lowered menacingly at the moment, which put it at a bit above Merry’s waist.) “Easy, Clifford,” she warned, using the pet name the big, red-furred dog-cousin hated. “Let’s not threaten the nice, gun-toting men, a’right?” She raised her hands placatingly. “Ah, look, boys, I’m Dr Madison Miller — people call me Merry. McKay’s niece? You do know McKay, right? Head of the science lab?”
She noted Rakka sniffing the air and turning. **What happened to Schorry?** Rakka asked, and Merry looked over her shoulder. She let out a squeak and turned fully, completely forgetting about the guns trained on her as she realised they were sharing the cell with an unchanged Wraith. A terrorist, she figured, wondering why Rakka had called him Schorrie.
**Smells like Schorrie,** Rakka insisted, so turned in to Merry that she picked up the woman’s thoughts without even trying.
“Schorin’s on the mainland,” Merry reminded Rakka. “And half-human, last I checked!”
The Wraith jumped, quite literally, as the pair appeared in the cell next to him. What sort of trick was this! The girl seemed innocent enough but the beast beside her looked a bit more threatening. But none of this really mattered because the fact that they’d appeared out of no where really was the main issue to be dealt with. He stood on the other side of the cell warily, moving back and forth and looking them up and down ignoring the guards which he had already decided were useless.
“How do you know my name?” he asked, curiously. He tilted his head at the dog again and up at the girl. “I don’t believe this was the place you intended to be,” he surmised.
“Put your hands on your head!” ordered one of the marines.
Ignoring him, Merry cocked her head at the Wraith in confusion. He certainly sounded like Schorin, save for a sort of wet sound to his voice, typical of the full-blooded Wraith. for a moment, she wondered if something had happened to the retrovirus, causing him to revert to his original genetic code, and if the others had put him in the cell because of that.
Then she remembered that she was supposed to be thirty days into the past, when Schorin was certainly still a half-human. Well, maybe the device had malfunctioned, and only teleported her? But surely someone would have told her if something like this had happened to Schorin?
Well, maybe they figured she had enough to deal with. She swallowed back tears at the thought of her late husband; she seemed to be a walking faucet these days …
Wait a minute. Why didn’t Schorin know her? A side-effect of the retrovirus malfunction?
Unless ….
“Dr McKay’s too young to have a niece her age,” one of the marines noted.
She got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“I said, put your hands on your head!” the first marine barked. Merry turned and found the man’s gun trained on her. Another guard had his gun on Rakka, and was radioing for backup. “What the hell is that thing?” A third muttered, his gun trained on Schorin’s face but his eyes giving furtive glances to the weretiew. The last guard had a stunner aimed at Scorin’s back, and could easily shirt to Rakka or herself if need be.
Merry slowly did as she was told. “Could one of you tell me the date is? Year too, please.”
“March 21st, 2008,” the man with the gun on Schorin answered helpfully.
Merry felt like she was going to throw up. The device hadn’t sent her back twenty-six days, to the day before Todd’s death — it had sent her back twenty-six years. And not even exactly so, since for her, it was February 14th, 2034. Rakka picked up on her stress, whining uneasily beside her.
“How did you get here?” the first guard asked.
“Would you believe that this massive watch on my arm is a time-travel device?” She asked with a nervous laugh. It didn’t even occur to her that she ought to be more afraid of being locked in the cell with Schorin than of the marines at that moment.
The marines, for their part, waited nervously for back-up. On the one hand, none of them were happy about leaving and unarmed woman in the cell with a Wraith – but on the other, the wolf-thing looked pretty dangerous in and of itself, and they couldn’t really be sure that the woman wasn’t a threat herself.
“Where is Todd?” Merry asked Schorin. “And why do they have you in here?”
Schorin had his hands behind his back, abnormally calm now save for a few glances to the large red canine. He would much rather have the guards protecting him from whatever the animal was than have a gun trained on his back. But, regardless, he didn’t know how the guards would fire the gun if the forcefield was still up on the cage.
He was intrigued with what the newcomer had said, though. He trained his eyes on the “massive watch,” as she called it, and studied it, curiously. This was certainly something to distract him from the monotony of the days. Seeing that the animal had been docile enough, even toward him, Schorin became a little less apprehensive. When the girl spoke Schorin looked up, surprised.
He slitted his eyes suspiciously at her. “I am aware of no being called…Todd,” he replied. “As to your second question–They are afraid.”
Schorin neared her a fraction to better see her watch but immediately got yelled at for it.
“Don’t move!” the guard from behind called.
Another guard came from behind the pack.
“I just called Dr. Weir. She said to wait for backup and remove the newcomers from the cell,” the guard, his name was Watkins, had woken the doctor up. The rest of the city was asleep, save for insomniacs. This was the night shift. “She said to put them under quarantine. She’d meet us there.”
The higher ranking officer nodded.
“Lower the shield. If you do anything, even hiccup, you’ll be shot. Understand?” he asked Schorin.
“I will do my best to keep my breath even,” Schorin replied, eying the girl and beast again. “As long as you hold that same promise toward our visitors.”
((OOC: I thought the shield let them shoot into the cell, just didn’t let anything come out? Kind of like how the Daedalus‘ shields let them still fire on an enemy while protecting them from enemy fire?))
Merry looked at Schorin, shocked at first that he would ask she be shot if she moved. Then she remembered when she was. Schorin had no idea that they would be friends in a decade or so. And he didn’t know Todd yet? Did that mean Todd wasn’t here? Hadn’t Todd made contact with Atlantis before Schorin? Something was wrong ….
Rakka let out a sound that was half-whine, half muttering growl. “Heel,” Merry told her, and the weretiew lay down, glowering at the guards.
“Look, can you at least tell me why he’s in here?” she asked as the shield disappeared. “In my time, he’s an ally! Have you just met him? Hey, do you know where Todd is?” If she could find Todd, hopefully their pheromone bond would bring him to her side, make him an ally. “Oh! Where is Dr McKay?” If she could tell Uncle Mer some things from his and her mother’s childhood, maybe he would believe her.
“Do you think we should take the watch-thing she has?” Schorin’s guard asked the officer in charge, ignoring Merry’s questions.
(OOC: GAH! You know, I was never quite certain about the technical aspects. I should bring up to someone that it would be helpful to have 1) a blueprint and 2) An idiots guide to Atlantis tech. I’m going to let you handle the technical aspects of opening the cell door.:))
Schorin stayed with his eyes trained on her as she spoke. He snorted. Ally? He had met many humans in his time that were worth his time to study but these humans? These humans with stolen Lantean technology who were dumb enough to go up against the entire Wraith species? He could never see them as allies. He couldn’t even convince them to let him go on his merry way throughout the galaxy, let alone form any substantial relationship with them. He grinned at the thought.
“Mckay’ll probably want to see it,” proffered Watkins. “See if she’s telling the truth.”
The officer nodded. “Let’s get them out of there. Lower the shield.” By this time others had come and surrounded even more densely in the small room.
“Watkins,” said the head officer, “Call the medlab. See if they’re ready.”
((OOC: Let’s leave Merry and Rakka in the cell, at least until John and Rodney arrive. Of course Weir can come check them out in the interim.))
“I’m sorry,” Merry began, “but considering this device is my only way back to my own time? You’re going to have to shoot me if you want it. You might be able to stun and move me, but Rakka here would be awfully heavy to carry. So don’tcha think it would be better to keep us in this cage for now? Besides, if I have something contagious, wouldn’t it be better to not drag me and my contagions around the city? And how do you except to keep Rakka at bay in a quarantine chamber, anyway, even if you could get her into one? No, you’d have to keep her in a cell, and I promise you she will be much less trouble if I’m with her. I’d be happy to give the device directly to McKay when he gets here, and he can confirm my identity. In the meantime, surely my staying in here a bit longer won’t hurt anything. Where is Uncle Mer, anyway?”
She didn’t trust these marines not to harm Schorin, and for the sake of the future, she was determined to protect him.
((OOC: Just so’s ya know, Merry doesn’t know yet that she’s not actually in her own dimension anymore.))
It was obvious that the captain was getting impatient. He bounced on the balls of his feet a little looking at Watkins and then back.
“I can assure you, you don’t want to be left in a cell with a Wraith,” he replied, gritting his teeth.
“Sir…” Watkins said softly.
“What!” snapped the captain. He sighed.
“She has a point. It would probably be better to keep her in a cell until the others return. If she’s refusing to move what better place to keep her?” the lieutenant stated.
The older officer sighed again and tapped his communicator. “Dr. Weir, we have a problem.”
As he explained the situation to the doctor Schorin decided to find out exactly what was going on in his own terms.
“Who are you?” he asked Merry ignoring the sound of a gun raising more definite in its position to his head.
“I assume you know Dr McKay? I’m his niece, from about twenty-six years into the future. A time when the Wraith, for the most part, are half-human hybrids who no longer need to feed on humans, but who retain many of their strengths and abilities — and who are at peace with most humans. Todd – my husband …” Her eyes began to sting, the familiar knot forming in her throat. She quickly dispelled it, though; she had come back to save him. Did it really matter how far back she had come, so long as she could give everyone the warning that would save him?
But what if you can’t get back? She mentally shook the thought away — she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.
“My husband led the bulk of the Wraith against those who refused to change, in a great war. You, Schorin, fought alongside him. You became a great assassin for the cause. And then one day a human assassin killed Todd. It was just a month ago for me — and we were married just two months ago.” A tear rolled down her face. “Killed by a human,” she repeated, glaring at the captain. “So you can see how I might prefer the company of a Wraith, at the moment, particularly one my husband called friend.”
Schorin chuckled. The chuckle turned into a laugh.
“I’m not sure I am at all comfortable to be left in a cell with someone who is obviously insane!” he replied loudly.
“It’s not your decision,” the captain growled having finished his conversation. “Dr. Weir is coming to talk to you. You can explain it all to her. In the mean time if either one of you make any moves I will not hesitate to order my men to fire.” He gave a warning look.
“Who do you think you are?” Schorin continued, staying securely in his half of the cell. “To think I would align myself with any Wraith…and while I might find humans intriguing I certainly don’t find them worthy of my trust!”
He heard more guns being trained on him.
“And if these humans weren’t here I would drain your life force right now. I’m being moderately well fed but I can always make room for more…” He hissed.
He was becoming aggravated quickly.
Merry gaped at Schorin. He’d really felt that way, once upon a time? What on earth had changed his mind?
“No!” She told the soldiers around them. “Leave him be — I have Rakka here to protect me.”
To prove Merry’s point, Rakka got back to her feet and growled at the Wraith menacingly. Rakka wouldn’t ruly hurt Scorin, but she could keep him away from Merry easily enough.
Schorin might think Merry was a nutter, might hate humans now, but that wouldn’t change the fact that he would save Todd’s life a number of times in the future. Merry couldn’t let him die, no matter what attitude he had for the moment.
Maybe she could convince him the same way she intended to convince her uncle.
“Your deaf. Deaf to the connection that all Wraith share. That was how you became such an excellent assassin for the resistance — they couldn’t sense you coming, but you were as strong as them, stronger than a human, which made you a far more capable killer of Wraith than a simple human ever could be. Now how could I know that — and your name — if I wasn’t who I say I am? If these things did not come to pass? How did I get here, in this cell with you, if this device couldn’t let me travel through time and space? You travel through the Stargates — surely you know that a solar flare can cause someone to travel through time when they enter a wormhole? Why is this so far-fetched?”
Schorin calmed but not in a way that validated her point. He smiled, though not in a way of friendship or trust. He laughed again, but not intending to bring joy.
“My dear human,” he started in a classic villain sort of way, “These people that hold me captive already know of my, as you call it, deafness.” He inhaled a sharp breath before continuing. “For all I know you could have been a spy or some sort of covert terrorist. Humans are known for attacking each other. I have seen it many times before. Your story is interesting, but I can assure you that I will never become an…assassin. I find myself only drawn to kill for food, or because of great annoyance.” He looked at her pointedly.
“And never would I take a side for such an act. As for you appearing here, there are a great many ways of matter transportation available at your disposal. I find it more likely that you simply miscalculated location as apposed to transversing through space and time, don’t you? And a time keeping device? For transporting through time? It’s a little obvious, wouldn’t you say? A little too obvious.” He laughed again, shaking his head. “You tell a good story.”
Merry swallowed hard. She was torn between trust of the being she knew and knowledge of how dangerous Schorin was, no matter how he looked, coupled with an understanding of just how dangerous a full-blooded Wraith could be. She couldn’t trust this man like she could trust the one she knew.
Besides, she had trusted him with Todd’s life and he’d failed her. She knew it wasn’t fair of her — Todd had been the one who was too trusting, and Elizabeth too — but Schorin had been there, and he hadn’t saved his leader. No matter how unreasonable it was of her to expect him to have been able to — they were all surprised by the attack — part of her thought maybe she should never trust Schorin again, even if she did still have to ensure that he lived to save Todd when necessary. She could trust history, at least. She could also trust Rakka to protect her, so she maintained most of her bravado, even if she was suddenly afraid of Schorin in a way she’d never been before.
“No one ever accused the ancients of being imaginative or original — but they certainly were practical. So time will tell whether I’m really just a liar, or a prophet from the future with a time-bending wristwatch,” she said, crossing her arms. There wasn’t any point in arguing with him.
“So how did you end up in here? Or in Atlantis, for that matter? There, if I were a spy, would I be so direct?” She smirked.
((OOC: Might as well use the thread for the original purpose — getting to know Schorin — in the ten minutes or so they’d have before the others arrive. 🙂 ))
“I never said I thought you were a good spy,” he replied with a grunt.
He put his hands behind his back again and strolled around watching the guns follow him as he went. He kept an eye on the large animal beside Merry, his pupils contracting when they hit a lighter spot in the cell and expanding nearly fully in the shadow. The cell itself was very dim. For that he was thankful.
He ended up on the far opposite corner of the cell looking at Merry. He turned around to face outward catching the captain’s face as they waited for Elizabeth to arrive.
His back still turned toward the girl he replied.
“I assisted a few of their people in getting off a planet inhabited by wild humans. In return they provided me with room and board and regular meals. Granted, it doesn’t have much of a view and it is a little…unimaginative in its decoration but it’s preferable to the alternative,” Schorin said cryptically. He looked over his shoulder with a grimace.
If nothing else Schorin was certainly one for conversation, even if it was with a possible enemy.
Merry scowled. “Are you saying that the alternative was that they kill you? Why not just let you go?” She was appalled at the lack of gratitude. It didn’t even occur to her to ask what he meant by their keeping him fed. “And why keep you in here? Surely if you helped them, that should have earned you their trust? They didn’t lock Todd up — surely Teyla could vouch for you as well?”
“You really don’t understand…” Schorin replied with interest. He turned full-faced to her. “The Wraith are awake…Merry.” He found himself momentarily amused at the alternative definition of her name and the situation she found herself in now.
“The Lantean settlers are smart. Why would they send a Wraith out in space, free to tell the rest exactly where they are? And even if I were telling the truth and wanted anything but to be reunited with my own kind they could easily pick me up and interrogate me. And if they could not enter my mind, as they can’t, they would torture me. If anything I should be grateful to Atlantis for choosing to keep me here. They could have easily used me as an example or for experimentation and they have done neither.”
Though, noticeably, Schorin didn’t say that he was grateful but that he should be.
“And I do not know who this Todd is that you speak but if he is a Wraith, which I gather from your comparison to my situation, then no doubt he would be treated similarly to me, especially if he possesses the abilities I do not. And I have spoken with Teyla. Though she seemed more understanding than the rest, she seems to have reason more than any to hate the Wraith, even more than I. So all of this considering, what do you think they will do with you? Even if you are someone from the future and human I sincerely doubt they will trust you. And your pet, what about it? Merry, I would try very hard to get on their side. This, girl, is a time of fear and distrust. I would hope that they believe your story.”
Schorin was a very good storyteller. He was very good with the dramatic. It was a quality other Wraith tended to lack. But as he had been forced to communicate verbally more than anything and effect people with motions, facial expressions, and the like his communication skills were much clearer.
Merry bit her lip. The Wraith did have a point — the safety of Atlantis was at stake — but it still seemed rather harsh and ungrateful of the expedition members to lock up the guy that had helped save several of them! And his words unsettled her; would she be kept in a cage as well? Would Rakka? Her brilliant plan was looking looking more and more like a terrible idea with every passing moment. She considered using the device to go back, but since she was here already, it would be a waste to do so without making the slightest effort to save her husband. She should at least try to reason with the people of her history, and hope that they would remember when the time came and do something to prevent the assassination.
“Everything’s just so different from how I thought it happened,” she said, more to Rakka than the Wraith, as she settled on the floor beside the weretiew, idly carding her fingers through the animal’s fur. “The way Todd and Uncle Mer and Auntie John told it, they all got along famously from the get-go! And why doesn’t anyone seem to know Todd? I know he met Auntie John before Schorin, and I thought he’s come to stay with them from the get-go!” She wanted to believe that she was just misremembering her history, but the sinking feeling in her stomach was sinking ever lower. Something was wrong.
“We’re doomed,” she lamented in Threepio tones.
“So what do you expect to do? Spend the rest of your days living in this cage? Surely they could at least set up quarters for you and just leave guards outside. Give you some privacy, and a bed, maybe some games to play?” Merry truly hoped they would allow her that much at least. She started getting a bit claustrophobic with the idea of being kept in a cage — although perhaps it was Rakka projecting the emotion to her. At any rate, it just made her more determined to use the device as soon as she gave them her warning …
Schorin chuckled, not being able to help being amused at the thought processes of the distraught human. Insanity was often amusing. Though, if she were telling the truth, the realization of her mistake was also equally amusing. To the Wraith, it was akin to watching a kitten try and fail to catch a scratching hand then landing on it’s back, humiliated.
“That you are,” he answered her. He crouched starting to feel, at the very least, a kinship in their capture. He toyed with his finger sheath, scratching on the surface, scratching out letters he’d been learning from the book idly.
“I’ve been in many cages, girl. I know how long it takes to trust someone like me. I do not fault them for their caution. I would do the same if I were cattle and my predator came and could not hide their teeth. I do get outings though.” A pause for the dramatic. “For feedings,” he said with a grin.
The captain was busy getting updates from the situation as it unfolded. Weir was making a detour to meet the other Wraith Colonel Sheppard had brought to Atlantis. They would have to stay a bit longer until Sheppard came to the cell. He shrugged his shoulder, his arm getting tight from holding up the weapon.
Merry shuddered appropriately. “Feedings? Wh-who are they letting you feed on?” She had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn’t voluntary little sips, not if they were caging him — they couldn’t trust him to stop. Plus if they were letting him feed on them, he could be fed where he was, rather than needing to be taken elsewhere. So who could they hate enough to suspend their morals and let him feed on them? “The Genii?” she asked. Were the Atlantians and the Genii still enemies at this point? She couldn’t remember.
“I have no knowledge of the Genii,” Schorin admitted, smiling at her discomfort. He thought for a moment about increasing her discomfort by not telling her where he was getting food but abandoned the idea as it would serve no other purpose than his own amusement.
“The Lanteans are allowing me meals on a planet overrun with something called Bola Kai. They are like humans but are severely degraded in result of interspecies cannibalism. It is apparently thought by the humans here that because these beings are so degraded that their lives are much more expendable than others. I must admit, the sensation of these Bola Kai are much less satisfying than that of humans unaffected from this diet, but I am in no position to be picky, I’ve found. Though I do fear that prolonged digestion of these creatures might effect some of my more charming qualities. Please, don’t hesitate to tell me if I start frothing at the mouth,” he said with a grin.
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