[PRP] I Don't Even Know How To Use a Gun (Scout/Evan)

[chiickadee]

Scout was on the training field, looking very awkward and out of place. Unlike others who were fighting dummies, hitting each other, testing out new moves, Scout felt completely out of place. She was a mechanic's apprentice and her skills were limited mostly to cars. She hadn't exactly had to fend off monsters in the shop.

There was one time a guy had tried to steal a part from the shop, but her mother quickly quelled that fight.

So instead she was sitting on a haystack, fiddling with her rifle and trying to jiggle the parts separate of one another. It would've been easier with a screwdriver or a wrench, but unfortunately she wouldn't even know where to begin to find those things. Did they even have tools like that or did they just wave their hands and some more magic did it?

< You should be hitting things little one! Smash them! But ... nicely! >

inle-roo

 

[Inle-roo]

Once the Life techs had told Evan what the artifact he had pulled out of Heracles's temple did and had fashioned it into something more practical than a bridle, he had been dying to find someone to spar so he could try it out. He practically skipped out to the training fields, a brand-new runiced belt around his waist, to look for a willing victim sparring partner.

Everyone seemed to be occupied though, with other people or with their own training. His disappointment was quickly replaced, as he saw an unfamiliar face fiddling with their weapon, with an overwhelming wave of want and need and must have.

The girl was pretty, too, he noted dimly, but most of his attention was fixed on the weapon in her hands. "Is that a runic M16?" Evan asked as he approached, a note of reverent awe and hope in his voice. His eyes practically sparkled as he took it in.

Gir snorted in the back of his mind. He was way cooler than that thing, obvs.

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

Scout looked up, and then looked around as though Evan must have been talking to someone else; someone behind her that she just couldn't see. But when no one was found, she pointed to herself with an inquisitive finger as if to say, You're talking to me?

< He is little one, sadly, I am neither runic nor M16- I am Rigor! >

"Um ... no," was Scout's polite way of repeating Rigor's information back to Evan. "To both parts."  

[Inle-roo]

Evan's disappointment was evident in the sad slump of his shoulders and sad sigh as he realized that these would not be found in the armory, but that this particular weapon belonged to the hunter holding it. Why couldn't you be an M16? Evan thought to Gir.

/Uhh, because then I couldn't be a super awesome badass sword, duh!/

"Guess you just got the luck of the draw, then," Evan said, finally looking past the gun to the girl holding it. "Sorry. I'm Evan. You must be new; I definitely would have noticed if someone had filled these dummies with the shot pattern from an assault rifle by now."

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

Scout nodded and a moment of silence went by.

< Name! >

"Ah- sorry, I'm Scout," she held out her hand in a gesture of the closest thing she had to friendliness. She seemed to be pondering the difference between an assault rifle and a sniper rifle. Was there a difference? Scout certainly didn't know.  

[Inle-roo]

"Nice to meet you, Scout," Evan replied with a cordial--though still somewhat distracted--smile as he took and shook the trainee's hand. "You don't look like you're too familiar with your weapon yet. You ever fired a weapon like this before?"

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

Scout shook her head slowly.  

[Inle-roo]

Evan didn't know if Scout was shy or overwhelmed or timid or some combination of all of those, but he had already put her under the mental file marked "handle with care" where people like Noemi and Oliver and Shu lived. It was less that she seemed delicate and more that she was still really, really new. "Well, you're in luck, because I can operate an M16 in my sleep. I'd be happy to help you out, if you'd like."

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

Scout perked up considerably. "Yeah?" She offered the gun up, only to find it disappearing once she tried to hand it over. It reappeared in her hand moments later.

< You cannot be rid of me so easily~ >

She looked at Evan with an eyebrow raised.

inle-roo

 

[Inle-roo]

"Happily," Evan confirmed, grinning at Scout's confusion as her weapon dismissed itself. "I can show you, but you have to do it yourself. This is your weapon, now, and it will be for the rest of your life, so it's on you to actually use it. Now," he continued, stepping back and gesturing at Scout to get up, "come show me how you think you're supposed to hold it."

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

Scout nodded, having understood from Rigor's words, but appreciating the reiteration Evan was providing. She had always been a fast learner, at least when it came to things she cared about. Average in school, but good at instructions.

She stood when he gestured, facing one of the mannequins. She didn't strike any particular pose; she put the gun up to her eye (too close to her eye) and her hand on the trigger like she'd seen in the movies.

It would take a single second for anyone, even someone without military expertise, to see that Scout had no ******** clue what she was doing.

inle-roo

i tagged both but only remembered to quote one woop

 

[Inle-roo]

"Not bad," Evan lied, "but that scope's going to hit you right in the eyeball if you try to shoot it like that. Try holding it like this instead." He came around behind Scout, his hands light on hers as he readjusted their position on her weapon. "You want to pull the trigger with the finger of your dominant hand," he explained, gently sliding her other hand down the barrel of the gun. "And you want this hand about halfway down the forestock. Don't hold it too tightly, just enough to support it--if you tense that hand up, your other one's gonna tense up, too, and then you're just firing randomly."

He stepped back to inspect her new position--already much better than it had been, and walked behind her to her right side. "Bring your head back and the butt up to the part of your shoulder that bends in. When you bring your head back down, you want to be able to look through the scope, not into it. This way, you won't hurt yourself and you still have your peripheral vision so you can see what's going on around you. You'll want to turn your body a little so you're shooting across your chest instead of in front of your body, with your feet shoulder width apart." As he spoke, he directed Scout with careful nudges of her elbow and shoulders until she at least looked like she knew what she was doing. "How's that feel? More comfortable?"

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

Scout tried to listen to attentively to what he was saying. She had no idea what a forestock was, but she could memorize the placement of her hand; that was easy enough. Was she tense? She hadn't even realized. It could have been because Scout had never killed a thing in her life, and the idea of hunting was utterly foreign to her.

She did as she was told, moving her head back and adjusting the gun. She squinted into the scope, but had no idea what he was talking about. How was she supposed to be able to see when it was so far away? All she could see was little blurred shapes.

Turning the body, across her chest, feet apart; she was beginning to feel more puppet than person. The tiny touches and nudges made her uncomfortable, but she didn't dare speak out for fear of offending him (perhaps this was a normal occurrence at Deus? She didn't know).

"Um ... awkward," she answered truthfully, "I'm not sure what you mean by through it ... I can't see anything like this." There was a time pause and then, "Uh, sir." Was she supposed to address him formally? She didn't even know his name to address him otherwise.

inle-roo