SILENCE! I KEEL YOU!

Posted on Tue Apr 30th, 2019 @ 11:23pm by Civillian Shae & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus

Mission: Interlude 1
Location: Cheyenne Base - Rec Room

Jeremy sat in one of the stuffed chairs in the rec room. Since his duty shift was over, he remained in just shorts, t-shirt and his Fivefingers just to be comfortable. Plus, he was off-duty and was tired and sore, but didn't want to be cooped up in his room since that's where he was doing both - sleeping, living and working on the various assignments given him as part of the SG1 team. Plus, he'd gone a few games of table tennis with Arcadia a little while ago and was now wanting to just sit and relax for a bit.

The rec room was mostly empty at the moment, since most everyone else already had dinner and some their time. Except for the SG1 team, they were just finishing up with their daily training. Well, most of them. It was a problem for Jeremy that he was benched for the last part of the day due to "restricted duty". But, no matter how guilty he felt at missing out on the same amount of training as the others, he only had himself to blame. He was responsible for getting injured in the first place.

His mostly eaten second dinner sat on the table next to him while he watched the show on the tablet. His food was growing cold but, and despite his guilt, he was laughing, trying to keep it silent and to himself so as not to bother others, but he wasn't doing so well in that effort.

After a quick shower to wash away the exertion of her training, Shae made a quick stop by the dining facility to pick up some food. She never got anything freshly prepared by the kitchen, not anymore, usually only grabbing a pre-packaged sandwich, a piece of fruit, a bag of chips, and a bottle of fizzy pomegranate juice she had become addicted to. Tonight, she grabbed two sandwiches as one was simply not enough to sustain her through all the rigors of training, then she made her way down to the rec room to eat. She saw Jeremy as she entered, offering a smile and a wave as she found a nice, comfy chair to sit in, or as comfortable as could be given her sore muscles. After some grunts of discomfort, she managed to settle into her seat and then contemplated her lunch. There was no doubt that she was hungry, but just looking at the cold sandwich made her want to blow chunks, and not just because she was starting to realize that too much bread made her feel bloated, but also because her core muscles were so tight that she just couldn't stand the sight of food right now, and damn it all, she never wanted to do another crunch for as long as she lived!

Opening the package of her first sandwich, Shae removed a piece of bread from each half, then smushed the two halves together to make a sandwich with double the meat and then shoved some chips in there to add some texture, but after just a couple of bites she put the franken-sandwich back in its package and set everything aside; it was sitting in her gut like a lead weight, and she had no desire to make herself sick trying to force herself to eat. To add insult to injury, she realized that on top of their daily training that she still had lessons she needed to get through, but her brain was so completely checked out at the moment that she didn't care about her lessons. Of course, it didn't help that she could hear Jeremy laughing at something on his tablet and her insatiable curiosity practically demanded that she find out what was so amusing! But she didn't want to intrude, so she simply stared blankly at her own tablet wondering what she should do before she inevitably passed out for the night.

Jeremy looked up as Shae entered and watched as she chose to find somewhere else to sit, away from him. He frowned, he thought they worked things out between them so he found it odd that she didn't come join him. Maybe, he thought, the team was more upset than he thought with him. He knew he wasn't fond of anyone in any of his flights that loafed - especially during vigorous PT or training. On the other side of it, though, he was already familiar with most of what was being taught so it wasn't as important for him to be there.

Which was a complete cop-out and he knew it. He still needed the practice. Needed to practice with others to coordinate with them as they did with him. Plus, he did know this stuff and, like he told Asher, he didn't have the luxury being at the bottom of the pole anymore, which meant it was more his job than ever to help train, teach and guide the team. Finally getting a chance to unload himself on Williams and begin to think again, plus being asked about Asher's level of support by the OSI investigation made him realize that on Avalon he was actually third in command. Which means a lot of the failures of what happened on that mission had to fall on him as well. Especially considering his own actions led to a chunk of the problems.

And that led him to another revelation as he sat watching Shae. He paused his show, picked up the remainder of his dinner and limped across the room. "Mind if I join you?" he asked Shae. How could he think Shae needed company and ignore her while he held resentment against Asher for his failure to act as a leader?

"Hn?" Shae looked up with surprise to see Jeremy standing before her. As much as she would enjoy the company, she felt compelled to warn him of what was to come. "Run, Corvus! Run before you have to do the awful training too!" she said, then she chuckled, immediately regretting the action as she winced and rubbed at her sore side. "Yes, you may join me, although I'm not doing anything of particular interest, just trying my best to relax after Williams hit me in the same spot many times because I kept forgetting to maintain my guard, and now I think my bruises have bruises... I can't believe you people do this voluntarily, you all must be out of your minds!"

"Well, I get paid as well. And a place to live, plus all the food I can eat, as long as it's during dining room hours. And," he sat and leaned in as if to whisper something of great conspiratol interest, "sometimes, I even get to jump out of airplanes! For fun!"

"Oh no, I'm surrounded by crazy people!" Shae said with mock horror, then smiled. "Oof, you Tau'ri don't mess around with your training! If anyone can take on the Goa'uld and win, it would be you crazy people." Shae moved her barely touched dinner from the couch, setting it on a side table so that Jeremy could sit on the couch with her. "So, how much longer until you're able to join us in all of this delightful training?"

"I go back on Monday to be seen by the doctor again. Hopefully then," Jeremy said, shrugging. "I want to say I'm really pushing to get off restricted duty, but I don't want Major to think that I'm trying to push too hard. So, rest, take it easy, limited PT and see if I'm better then. Which I tell you, I'm really looking forward to more sparring with Williams." Jeremy leaned in again, hoping that he wouldn't be overheard. "I think he's holding back though. I know my first time with him, he was hitting hard enough to knock me to my rump."

Shae nodded agreement. "It is scary how strong he is! I don't think he's holding back now because I am feeling every mistake I made throughout my training!" she declared. "As for the Major, he is simply trying to make sure that you aren't causing yourself additional damage. He would not let me do anything either when I had that staff burn, he wanted to be sure that I was able to perform well without any hindrances or without my mind being muddled by the medicine I was given for the pain, which was a good call because I could barely shoot straight while I was taking that medicine."

Jeremy didn't think about that. He was working his way off the narcotics himself because he was told to be in uniform while on duty, which included carrying a sidearm. Which didn't mix with opiod medication. But, Shae wasn't human. She was some sort of fox/human hybrid. What did opiod medication do to her system? But, he had to trust the doctors to know what they were doing - but in the field? It was a question he'd have to come to answer. "He did tell me that there was something coming up next week which would make this look like child's play." Jeremy set his tablet on the table, accidentally rubbing his thumb on the screen which unpaused the video he was watching.

Shae was about to ask him what he meant by that when she nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of raucous laughter coming from his tablet. And then there on the screen was a man next to a tiny old man sitting on some sort of pedestal. Did tiny humans like that actually exist? Then the tiny old man spoke, but there was something wrong with his mouth. Was he a doll? But how was he talking? "What is that?" Shae asked with rapt fascination, pointing to the people on the tablet.

"Oh, sorry," Jeremy said, pausing the video again. "It's just a comedy special that I was watching. One of my favorites. Gets a little raunchy, but really funny."

"Wait wait!" Shae said when he paused the video, her insatiable curiosity overriding her discomfort by forcing her to sit forward. "Play it again, and tell me what magic makes this doll move and talk like this!"

"Magic?" Jeremy asked, frowning. "No, 'Walter' is a puppet. He's moved by a series of controls inside of it that Jeff operates with his hand. You've never seen a puppet before?" he asked, not wanting to sound elitist but awestruck at the lack of a quintessential childhood experience.

"Pup-pet?" Shae said, staring at the doll that had been identified as 'Walter'. "Ah, I see the man's arm at the doll's back, but how does he make it make sound?" she asked, her eyes filled with such amazement.

"It's ventroliquism. Jeff's throwing his voice. If you look closely at his throat, you'll see it working as he speaks."

Shae reached out to touch the screen to make the video play again, and as she watched the puppeteer, she could indeed see his throat working when the doll spoke. "That's amazing! I have seen dolls telling stories before, but the ones who make them move and speak are always hidden. But he makes it look like he and his doll are carrying on a conversation, how amusing!" As she listened, she could tell there were certain word sounds that were off just ever so slightly from not being able to use the full range of his mouth, but this Jeff person performed so smoothly and with such confidence that it was barely noticeable! "Oh, his 'Walter' doll is quite a crude character!" she exclaimed with some amusement when she realized what exactly the doll was saying.

Jeremy laughed at a bit while shaking his head, "Yes, he is. But that's part of the joke. He's the stereotype of the typical old curmudgeon but if you really listen to him, you hear him cutting through a bunch of the crap that we through up to make things "smoother"." Jeremy said. "It's the tradition of the king's court jester, or fool. They were the only ones that could say certain things to the king because they couched it in humor."

"Uh huh..." Shae said. She had never been to a proper court rules by a king, so she'd never seen a court jester, so she didn't entirely understand the reference, but she was able to grasp its meaning. "This Walter looks quite life-like for being a doll! His human is doing a masterful job of crafting his behavior to make him feel alive!" she said. "Oh look, Jeff looks genuinely surprised by some of the things his doll is saying! How wonderful!" she exclaimed with excitement.

"Yeah, later, with some of the other puppets, they make fun of that. When he says that he doesn't understand what they're saying. They're really funny, you've not seen anything like this before?"

"No, never!" Shae was completely enthralled by the performance, even if she didn't understand all the jokes. "The street performances with dolls are nothing like this because the people making the dolls move are never seen and the dolls play out a story much in the same way as stage performances," she explained.

"Oh, yeah, puppet theater! I saw a few of those when I was a kid, and there were some old shows on that had puppets in them, more like you describe. One of them was really creepy and kept giving me nightmares. My parents didn't understand it because he was supposed to be a really nice guy, but he just...I don't know...he made me scared. Where I thought he was the monster in the closet. But there's a big difference between puppet theater and ventroliquism. Ventroliquists actually interact with the puppet they're playing. We have some really good ones, like Terry Fator and Darcy Lynn. But Jeff Dunham is awesome. He's got about seven or eight shows out now. I could get you some if you like."

Jeremy looked at the tablet again then something struck him. "Hey! I have an idea. I hope it's a good one that you'll like. There's some other shows that are like puppet theater, and are targeted to children as educational shows. Like 'The Muppet Show' and "Sesame Street". Though, my Mom didn't like Sesame Street. She thought it was part of the decline of respectable youth behavior in this country. But we could find some of the shows, I think, and that might help you learn about our language and culture."

"You had monsters in your closet?" Shae asked with stunned belief.

Jeremy chuckled. "We only thought so. When we're children. I guess not everyone, but most kids. It's pretty much a function of overactive imagination and misunderstandings, the way any superstitious and supernatural creepies start. In my case, I'd hear my own heartbeat in my head and, not understanding what it was, I 'concluded' it was footsteps of some creature coming to get me. Doesn't help when you have older brothers who think scaring the small brother was funny."

He shrugged. "Not like some people who had actual monsters chasing after them."

"My monsters were Oni," Shae said. "I know now that real oni are just myths and legends and that it was Jaffa in scary masks chasing me. Still, I find it amazing that your world is so safe that the children have this freedom to create the monsters of imagination." Her attention was drawn back to the tablet where Jeff now had a different puppet, and this time it was a skeleton screaming 'I kill you!'. "Oh my, this one is not very nice at all, is he! Oh, but he is very expressive for being made of just bone..."

"Not all children are that safe," Jeremy said, sad and quiet. He was thinking about things too much lately and that was bothering him. But, as he watched the screen, he forced his thoughts away from it. "Achmed is my favorite! He's such a stereotype that he's hilarious! 'Silence...I KEEL you!'" Jeremy laughed. But he also looked over his shoulder, at a group of enlisted at another table. Frowning, he turned back in time to catch another Achmed joke.

As curious as she was about what a 'stare-e-o-type' was, Shae caught on to his sadness about children, and then his glance to the enlisted officers and the resulting frown also caught her attention. "Is everything alright, Corvus? You seem upset," Shae said.

"It's nothing," Jeremy said, taking another look over his shoulder but turning around again. "Just maybe a bit more tired than I thought."

Shae looked back at the enlisted officers again; she didn't understand what was upsetting Corvus so much, but she wanted to understand. "If you are sure that it is nothing, then it is nothing, but if it is not nothing, then you can talk to me about it. I can't promise that I will understand, but I am good listener, even if our past experiences may suggest otherwise," Shae offered.

"Just idiots talking," Jeremy said. He glanced at his tablet. "Hey, maybe you'll like Darcy Lynn," he said, trying to find the video clips. "She's an incredible ventroliquist and singer."

Shae didn't pay much attention to the video of Darcy Lynn, instead turning her head just enough so that she could listen to the officers and their chatter. She had heard them before, but she wasn't really listening up until now so their voices had been little more than background noise that she could ignore. Well she was listening now!

"As if passing O'Connor around like some chewed up toy wouldn't be enough, now you've got her sniffing about and working her way down." Followed by some chuckles and laughter around the table. The one in the center seemed to be the alpha of the sick little group and most of the vitriol was coming from him.

Shae sucked in a sharp breath when she heard what these men were saying and her face turned positively crimson. Her first impulse was to storm over there and give them a piece of her mind, but then she remembered that she had been warned about such confrontational conduct, and she called to mind Asher's advice about approaching the situation with a cool head.

"What does it mean if men talk about passing around a woman like a 'chewed up toy'? Am I correct in assuming that it is a derogatory remark of a sexual nature?" Shae asked Corvus. "And how am I 'sniffing about' or 'working my way down'? I do not understand what this means."

Jeremy, laid the tablet on the table. "It means they're complete jerks," he said, "who don't have the first clue what they're talking about. And it also means I've disrespected you by hoping you weren't going to hear what they were saying because as a higher rank I should have put a stop to it when it first started." He glanced at the Senior Airman that seemed to be central. "Excuse me while I go have a chat with that guy."

Jeremy stood and hobbled over to the table. "Senior," he said, "mind if I have a word?"

"Staff Sergeant," the Senior Airman said, giving a smirk to his companions. "May I inquire what it's about?"

"Sure," Jeremy said, completing his trek around the table. "It's a quick lesson in proper etiquette."

"Etiquette, yes, Sergeant," the airman said, again to chuckles. "I'm ready to be instructed."

"Yes, well," Jeremy said, cracking his neck. Then, with a speed and grace that his injury belied, he had the airman out of the chair and thrown against the wall behind him, held up to the point the airman was on his toes. "See, the problem is that your comments are detrimental to my teammate over there and it just upsets me to no end." Jeremy's voice changed from his normal tone. It was lower, dangerous and full of the promise of violence. He shifted his grip to put his forearm against the man's throat. "And if any of your friends make another motion to interfere with our 'discussion' they'll learn to regret it."

"You...cra...zy..." the man sputtered.

"Yes, I do hear that around the base, you heard it as well?" Jeremy asked. "That's good, because this is me, under control. Imagine if my cherub like demeanor is disturbed by poor examples of military behavior? I'm sure I'd be very much satisfied if the lady over there finds suitable apologies from you and your cronies."

"I think your message has been received, Corvus, now let him down," Shae said as she joined him at the table. "Come, sit down and rest your leg; Major Asher will be displeased if this display causes a delay in your recovery," she reminded him, offering her arm to support him in case he needed it.

"Dang it," Jeremy said, remembering Asher now. But he threw the Senior Airman to the ground. "I hear of any of you disrespecting any other member of my team, or any other female in this command, or Lieutenant Williams again and I will smoke you," he said it to be intentionally ambiguous as to the meaning. "As of now, you're all on barracks restriction get moving."

He turned back to Shae, "Thank you, but this wasn't nearly as difficult as facing a PT session with our COs." He looked around the room. "I could show you how to access the Dunham videos from the central video library if you'd like." He seemed to be the more innocent, goofable Corvus again now that the others were leaving. But it was strained, as if it were difficult for him to put that non-swearing, innocent mask back on.

Jeremy seemed okay hobbling back to the couch on his own, so instead of walking back with him, she stared at the enlisted officers scrambling to pick up their buddy and make a hasty retreat. "Even if I was working through the staff on some sort of sexual conquest as you seem to think, be assure that I would not pick low hanging fruit such as yourselves. As for your insult to my good friend, you had better make your apology a good one, and be grateful that we are here and not somewhere else; slavery still exists where I am from, and were we not allies I would have no qualms about selling you to a brothel where you can learn what it truly means to be passed around like a chewed up toy," she said in an icy cold tone, then returned to couch to sit beside Jeremy, retrieving her own tablet from the side table where she had left it earlier.

"Please, show me where to find these videos," Shae said softly, trying to reclaim the light and laughing mood from earlier, but she could see that Jeremy was struggling to reign in his anger. "I am sorry that you were angered because of me."

"What?" Jeremy said, frowning at her. "I wasn't angered because of you, but for you. That never should have happened. Fortunately, though," he said, as he dropped his voice to a whisper, "they were talking about you and Lieutenant so that was better. Still, shouldn't be saying things like that about anyone and especially not my friends." He pulled up his file explorer on his tablet so she could follow along on hers.

"This is not the first time I have heard talk like this," Shae admitted as she followed along with what he was doing. "I normally don't give it much thought, but they brought Ree into this and it was making you upset... Thank you for defending us against this gossip, but I doubt it will stop; the existence of rumors seem to be universal a universal constant."

"No," Jeremy said, jaw clenched, "That they talked about any of my friends and teammates like that made me upset. You, Williams, O'Connor. That's now the way we do it."

"Oh... like a pack? You protect the team like we are packmates?" Shae asked, trying to understand.

"Yes," Jeremy said, with a smile. He guessed that's how she'd see it. "Like packmates."

Shae smiled; packmates, she liked the sound of that...