fandomhighdorms | Shooting Range [Monday afternoon]

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Shooting Range [Monday afternoon]

Katniss made her way to the shooting range on Monday afternoon, her bow and a quiver full of arrows slung over her shoulder. After Friday's Marksmanship class and her frustration with the rifle, the idea of learning to shoot alternate weapons was all the more appealing.

So she warmed up as she waited for Wesley, setting up targets and shooting them in the head (actually, precisely where their left eye would be, if they were real) neatly. It was excellent stress relief, particularly after the weekend.

Though, when she thought about Rue, her aim faltered just a bit, so she quickly banished any thoughts of her small, lost friend.

[she's waiting for Wes, but it's an open range! :D]

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Wesley was usually in the mood to shoot some stuff, and always in the mood to show off his skills, so it was with a spring in his step that he made his way to the shooting range. When he had been packing for Fandom earlier in the summer, he might have gone a bit overboard with the weapons, so he carried with him a bag of a few different types of guns, thinking it couldn't hurt to introduce Katniss to different styles.

He walked in just in time to see an arrow whizz across the room and hit a target. "Impressive," he said, setting down the bag. "Hello."

Katniss lowered her bow, smiling a little at his entrance. "Hello." The bag, however, got a raised eyebrow. "You came prepared, I see."

"I thought it couldn't hurt," Wesley replied, though he blushed a little at being typically overprepared. "And it could be helpful to have you try different things and see what you get a feel for. I knew a boy at the Watchers' Academy who was quite a skilled marksman with most types of guns, with the single exception of the shotgun. For whatever reason he was left with that as his only weapon against a rather large demon on a hunting trip, and it was quite a disas -"

Realizing abruptly that this might not be very encouraging, he stopped. Yeah, not the best way to teach a class, Wes.

And that just sounded all too much like so many tributes she'd seen thrust into the arena with no weapons training whatsoever, or trapped with a weapon they couldn't use. Honestly, it was like her first few days in the arena, before she was able to take the bow from Glimmer.

"I'd like to learn my way around as many different things as possible," she said, nodding simply. "You're not going to be the last person I have to teach to shoot. Diverse weapons are probably the best idea to get the broadest experience, right?"

"Precisely," said Wesley, still blushing from that whole faux pas. "So shall we start with your portion of the lesson or mine?"

"By all means," Katniss said, crossing over to interestedly look at the guns he'd brought. "You can teach me first. I'm curious."

Wesley crouched down and emptied out the contents of the bag. He removed a pair of handguns, a pair of shotguns and a pair of rifles, setting each like pair side by side on the flattened bag. "Handguns, shotguns and rifles," he said, pointing to each in turn. "I favor handguns, myself - their small size and portability are very convenient in close situations; shotguns are preferable for for power and impact, as they fire shells of pellets in quick succession, and rifles are the most precise for purposes of hunting and one-shot situations."

[Yeah, I asked a midwest-y friend of mine about guns and got all that in a 15-minute tutorial.]

Katniss moved in closer to see the guns as he described each one, reaching out to touch the rifle. "This is what I'd probably use most of the time," she admitted, "since I primarily use my bow to hunt. But those handguns are impressive. You could hide it on you, if you wanted."

[oh, midwesterners! so wise about the ways of firearms. :D]

"I deducted as much," he said, and picked up the two rifles, handing her one and holding the other. "Now, I imagine this is quite different from your bow. You hold the gun like this," he said, demonstrating, "with the butt up against your shoulder and one hand on the trigger and the other on the barrel. When you're first learning, it's also a good idea to keep steady footing, such as combat stance or any variation in which your feet are solidly planted down with your weight distributed to each foot evenly. Try not to lean overtly forwards, which would be your first instinct - there will be something like a tremor just after you fire, and leaning forward could cause you to fall down."

Wow. He sounded like a teacher. Good thing, 'cause this was the one thing he could teach really well. "You try," he instructed. "Just standing, that is. Don't actually shoot yet."

I made two attempts at this. Midwestern friend told me my first one was way wrong, so she made me redo it. This may actually be correct.

Katniss mimicked his stance, carefully positioning her fingers where instructed. The butt of the gun pressed into her shoulder, and she cradled the barrel in her hand. As she started to lean forward, she snapped to a straighter posture as soon as she caught herself. "It's a little awkward," she commented with a small smile, tightening her hands a bit. "But I'll live."

Wesley walked in a circle, evaluating her posture. "Very good," he said, impressed. The first time he'd picked up a rifle had been a disaster, but Katniss seemed to have a firm handle on how it worked.

"Now, brace yourself for what is known as the kickback. It's more of an issue with shotguns, but all guns have it to some degree. When you fire, there will be a slight tremor that can hurt your shoulder, but it's important to get used to it in the event that you ever need to use a gun in an emergency situation. It will be quite painful, but better to experience it in a training session than in a battle scenario."

He paused, surveying her face to make sure she was keeping up.

She nodded, digesting that. "My shoulder's taken worse," she assured him. "Archery's not exactly easy on the shoulder muscles, either. I'll try not to fall over or anything."

Wes cracked a smile at that. "I sincerely hope so," he said with a laugh. "All right. The last thing you should be prepared for is the noise - rifles are notoriously loud, and though tools exist to suppress the sound, I don't have any at my immediate disposal just now, so we'll simply have to brace ourselves."

Thinking it was enough chatting and not enough demonstrating, he did a mental survey of all the topics he'd addressed thus far. Yep, sounded pretty good.

"So I suppose you'd like to see a demonstration, then?" Well, what he supposed was that she'd probably like to try on her own, but that would have to be prefaced with a demonstration anyway. Not that he thought she'd shoot down the building or its other occupants or anything like that. Just as a precaution.

"As an example," she said, smiling a bit herself. She felt a small twinge of anxiety at the idea of the noise; even if her ear had been well-repaired by the Capitol after the Games, she hardly wanted to repeat the experience. But if Wesley was willing to risk it, she doubted she'd break another eardrum. "My aim is usually fine, so I feel safe enough -- but I'd like to see you go first, just so I know what to imitate."

Seeing her anxiety, Wesley offered, "I'm sure they have earplugs or headphones if the noise bothers you..."

"I'll be fine," she promised quickly, straightening her posture again, just to be safe. "I just, um, hurt my ear recently and lost all hearing in it. But it's all better now -- better than it was before, probably, so I'll be okay."

"Oh." Concerned, Wesley offered again, "Are you certain? I'm sure I could procure a silencer of some sort for our next session if we're to do this again, but in the meantime, there should be earplugs available somewhere..."

"As long as you promise I won't lose the hearing in my ear again," she said with a little laugh, "I'm sure it'll be okay. The way the Capitol heals things, I probably have super-ears at this point that can't be broken again. So don't worry about it."

Wesley nodded slowly. "All right, but if you're at all worried, we'll see about finding some earplugs," he said firmly.

Switching back to teacher-mode, he stepped up to one of the booths to practice shooting a target. "Shall I demonstrate for you now? You're welcome to take a step back if you'd like to be away from the noise, though it might be best to monitor my form if you're up close."

Then he blushed bright red and said quickly, "I meant - er - shooting form. Not, er... I meant the positioning of my hands, and such."

Katniss blushed to her hairline, but moved past it, trying to pretend she hadn't caught the second meaning. "I know what you meant," she said, trying to sound casual. It would have worked better if her complexion had behaved. She lowered her gun from where she'd been studiously holding it, moving closer to study where Wesley had his hands, as well as his stance. "I can deal with the noise if it means getting this right."

Wes nodded. "I rather thought you might."

With that, he picked up the rifle and held it as he'd instructed Katniss to earlier, with the butt propped against his shoulder, his left hand on the barrel and his right hand on the trigger. He took longer than he actually needed to set up his shot, wanting to demonstrate the importance of careful aim even if he could do it fairly quickly, the target being pretty large and all.

He fired, leaving a neat hole just where the target's heart would be. "And that's how to shoot a rifle," he said, grinning as he turned around, gun lowered. "Would you care to try, or would you prefer another demonstration?"

"I want to try," she said eagerly, having watched attentively. "Do you always aim for the heart that way?"

Wesley blinked. "Er. No," he said, not even having realized it. "Er. Side effect of hunting vampires, I suppose. Not that one uses a gun to do that - I suppose I've just become accustomed to aiming there. But for your purposes, feel free to aim wherever you'd like."

"I usually go for the head," she admitted. "Through the eye, if possible. What's a vampire?"

Huh. Wes could wrap his head around Katniss never having heard of popcorn or television meant to entertain or the proper way to hold a gun, but never having heard of vampires? He'd grown up with scary stories about them and accumulated scouting badges for sharpening stakes and practicing beheading dummies. he couldn't imagine not knowing what they were.

"They're a type of monster quite common in my reality," he explained. "They kill their victims by feeding on their blood. I was raised to know how to kill them, and to teach such methods to a warrior."

And now he's here teaching Katniss how to kill other stuff. Oh, irony.

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