The Range [Thursday evening]

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela had spent most of her day in her room watching Amber. She didn't like seeing her roommate so sick, but at least she was pretty sure that it wasn't life-threatening.

Just gross.

She'd taken some time to look for tea, and then later to put up the posters Amber had helped her make. But eventually Amber had fallen into a fitful sleep again and Triela had decided that she needed to get out.

So she was at the range. There was something different about being alone on the range. She didn't have to keep half of her attention on others, making sure they weren't doing anything dangerous, that they didn't need any help. Alone she could lose herself in the rhythmic crack-crack-crack.

Every bullet blew threw the same hole, but Triela didn't even notice that anymore.

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah had seen Triela go in, and after a little debate, decided to join her.

She waited in the back until Triela was re-loading, ear protectors on, then approached her. "Hey, Triela."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela stood completely still for half a second. That was as much surprise as she showed. After forcing herself to relax slightly she turned and smiled.

"Hey, Dinah. Everything okay?" Triela had noticed Dinah'd left early on Tuesday.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yup." Dinah smiled a little, looking down at the guns. "Just felt like practicing a little, since I missed on Tuesday. And I kind of need the break from sparring."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"The range is open," Triela grinned. "And you're always welcome to borrow some of my stuff."

She turned back to firing. When she stopped to reload again she turned to ask, idly curious, "What happened Tuesday, anyway?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Ahhh..." Dinah had gotten to the door, seen Arthur, and turned around to walk away, unable to deal yet. Since he was clearly not there to see her-- as deep in conversation with Mr. Algren as he was-- she hadn't wanted to risk either public snubbing or public arguing. "Looong play rehearsal. Intense." True. "I got here and realized I was too tired to deal with more people." Sorta true. "So I figured I'd come by and practice on my own. Then I saw you come in." With her cello case. Dinah cocked her head. "I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Not at all," Triela smiled, accepting the explanation. "I don't mind some company."

"How's the play going, anyway?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Good!" Dinah said, relieved. "We're half-way through the first run-through. Geoffrey breaks it up so we do one act a week, really get into it." She smiled a little. "I'm starting to understand the words better." The sword-work would be next week, and the week after that. She'd have something ready, then. She pointed at the guns. "Could I try that one?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"MP-7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP7)," Triela said in approval as she picked up the gun that looked something like an over-sized pistol. "It takes some getting used to, but it's a really nice weapon."

"You want some pointers?" If not Triela trusted the other girl to figure things out.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I have no idea how it works, so, yes please." Dinah regarded the MP-7 with some trepidation, and bit her lip, watching Triela. She always associated guns like these with bank robbers and war, and couldn't imagine willingly picking one up... but that didn't mean she might not have to, sometime. If only to get it out of someone else's hands.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela ran Dinah through the basic workings of the gun. Extending stock, magazine release, safety. She does it with the sort of practiced experience that suggests she's extremely familiar with the thing.

Dinah's intuition was right. The MP7 was a carefully engineered killing machine. It's why Triela liked it.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah carefully watched, then said, "Can I try to load it?" She shook her head. "And learn how to unload it, fast. God. This is an ugly thing."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Unload fast? Like if you disarm someone?" Triela asked, handing a loaded magazine to Dinah.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Exactly. I told you about the telekinesis, I think? It won't help me to disarm them if the weapon is still live, and they can retrieve it. If I can separate the gun and the ammo, and keep the ammo away from them, that's that much more of an edge I'll have," Dinah said, taking the magazine from her.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Here," Triela pointed to the magazine release. "That magazine doesn't take much force to remove. Just a little tug and it'll drop free."

Next she pointed to the bolt grip. "Then you can either pull here to pop the round in the chamber out, or just pull the trigger. That's usually easier."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah carefully did both, keeping the MP-7 aimed away from her, then nodded slowly. "Wait, pull the trigger to get the last bullet out?" She blinked at Triela. "Doesn't that fire it at something?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Exactly," Triela nodded. "If you've got a target then you can cut down on those. Otherwise you can just aim it at the floor or the ceiling or something."

Triela definitely had an opinion on which one was better.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was chilled all over again by how Triela talked about 'targets', but nodded anyway, hair falling into her face. "Bolt. I'll just get it out."

Because seriously. She is so not okay with killing anyone, even if she can't be sure she did in the middle of a fight.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"That works, too," Triela agreed. Then she paused. "How precise is your... thing?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"It's getting better. But it's easier against bigger targets," Dinah admitted. "Person-sized, or, hmm, big-packaged sized. Gun-sized is pretty easy too, though. It's like I have large motor control, but not fine motor control?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Then I guess telling you how to crack a firing pin won't be a huge help, huh..."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Maybe?" Dinah looked hopeful. "How? Like I said, I'm learning. I might not be able to do it this week, but give me a couple more months, it might be do-able."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Fair enough." Triela's fingers moved with swift surety as she took the gun and stripped it down in a few seconds. "See this part right here?" she asked, pointing. "That's the firing pin. You bend it, break it, or disconnect it from the spring it's hooked up to and the gun can't fire."

"Most semi-automatics work the same way."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

It was a huge relief to know this. Dinah reached out to touch it, memorizing its position in the gun, and the way it fit together with the firing mechanism. "So if I can see it, or if they're staying still for any length of time at all, I can break it." She nodded, smiling again. "Thanks. That's really good to know."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Just don't break any of mine," she mock-admonished. "And it won't work on revolvers." She didn't want Dinah getting hurt because she didn't fully understand what she was doing.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Got it. Anything I can do to a revolver? I am *not* good enough to deflect bullets." Dinah paused. "Yet. I don't know, Barbara thinks I might be, someday."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Revolvers are tougher," Triela shook her head. "They're simple, so they almost never break."

"But," she drawled musingly, "if it's been fired once then you might be able to stop the chamber from revolving. That means the hammer will hit the bullet it already fired. But you'd have to hold that for a while. It won't stay broken."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Got it. I can do that at least long enough to get out of the line of fire," Dinah said, thinking aloud. She put the MP-7 back down, and studied the others. "Thanks for this. I know how-to-break-guns isn't exactly standard." She gave Triela an amused look. "I appreciate it, though. And I won't break yours, no. Maybe I can practice on something small and similar. Glued-together Legos, or something."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Triela considered it for a moment. "You might just practice moving a pin around by itself. See if you can... get a grip on it? Whatever..."

Telekinesis wasn't something Triela had any much experience with.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"That might work," Dinah admitted. "I think I better talk to Professor Atreides about it, too. She might have some ideas." She took a breath. "Which one would you recommend for me to carry, if I did end up carrying one? I don't really plan on it, but no reason not to be prepared."

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Power, ammo, and concealability. Which two do you care about most?" Triela grinned. "It's one of the classic tough choices."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Mmmm." Dinah frowned, thinking hard, then slowly said, "I was thinking of what the police carry. So I think concealability above all? And whatever translates into ease of fire?" She paused, then had to ask, "Triela? I know you've been doing this a while. Who taught you all of it, though?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Something small, then. Maybe a .38 or a .22..."

She reached into her shoulder holster and pulled out a pistol. "What about something like this? The P7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_&_Koch_P7) is usually a backup weapon. Small, light, easy to hide."

"I taught myself," she answered. "Hilshire was supposed to, I guess, but I've never really needed his help." Well, maybe Hilshire had helped. A little. Or a lot. But she'd never admit it.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was ridiculous to find the P7 less intimidating than the MP-7. But possibly it was just that the potential to screw up with it was less. "That looks okay, yeah."

She tilted her head, and raised an eyebrow at Triela's commentary on Hilshire. "So, you just picked up a gun, and knew what to do? Was that part of the conditioning too?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no," Triela shook his head. "It took a lot of practice." Hours a day. But Triela was willing to put in the work.

"Hilshire told me what I had to learn. I learned it."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah understood about dedication, and Triela certainly seemed sincere. And for some people here, maybe it was that easy? Why did she find herself wanting to doubt Triela? Probably because she looked so young. And seemed so oblivious to some of the consequences. Which didn't mean she didn't have the skills, just... maybe not the discretion to know when not to use them.

"Next week, maybe a day or so after Gun Club, we should go back to the music store. I want to take Camille to play with Alice's cat," Dinah said, veering totally off-topic. Except inside her head, where Triela could use a little normalcy. "You up for that?"

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

Dinah was right. Triela was oblivious to a lot of things. Part of that was the conditioning, and part of it was just oblivious arrogance.

"That sounds good to me," Triela grinned. "You just let me know when you want to do it."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Cool. Thanks for all this, Triela." Dinah gestured to the unloaded guns, and the disassembled weapons. "I really appreciate it." She checked her watch. "And now I'm going to crash out. Talk to you in Gun Club, if I don't see you earlier."

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack decided to put in some quality time at the Range, noticing that it was open. He waved, not wanting to be distracting.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Jack," Triela called absently as she took a break to reload a few magazines.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Hiya, Triela. You need any help with that?" he asked, nodding at the magazines.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"No thanks," Triela shook her head easily.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"No problem," he said with a grin.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"How have you been?" she asked.

Might as well be polite.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Not too bad. Still getting used to dry land sometimes," he said. "It's weird. Maybe I need another cruise?" he asked hopefully, like it would just drop out of the sky.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"I'm pretty sure there are cruises all the time. You just have to sign up for one."

And pay them.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"I'll have to look into them, then," he said, musing.

Right. Pay. Well, then.

[sorella-vecchia.livejournal.com]

"Good luck."