fandomhighdorms | Shooting Range, Wednesday Afternoon

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Shooting Range, Wednesday Afternoon

Lately, Wesley had ~~handwavily~~ come to the shooting range less and less, so making the plan to teach Percy a bit about marksmanship was a relief in more ways than one: first, he had the opportunity to help someone out, which was always nice if a bit rarer than he'd like, and second, he could practice and let off some steam himself. All in all, it was a good plan.

While he waited for Percy to show up, Wesley practiced firing his gun at the target, satisfied when he hit it every time.

[[Open, expecting one.]]

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Percy hadn't ever been to the shooting range so between the weather and the unfamiliar place, it took him awhile to find it. Once he did, he stepped inside and shook the snow off of him.

"This freaking island, I swear," he said grouchily, trying to warm his hands and cheeks up. "Freaking snow in July."

Wesley was in the middle of lining up a shot when Percy entered. Because he was a show-off, he aimed, fired, and -- hit the target. Of course.

Only then did he turn around, using his left hand to lift up his goggles while keeping his occupied hand at his side.

"It is quite bothersome, I have to agree," he replied. "I rather enjoyed the detour in London."

Percy wasn't blind, he noticed that really accurate shot right there but he all he did was raise his eyebrows in lieu of saying anything else. It was impressive but he didn't have to say that.

"Never been in this place before," he admitted, walking over towards Wesley. "I've been sticking to the salle mostly."

Wesley knew Percy had seen it, and that was what mattered. Because the one-upmanship contest was never over.

"Oh?" Hm. He supposed that made sense, what with Percy's preference for swords. "Well, yes, it's quite a convenient place for practice and such. Though I should caution you that there are a few more safety precautions here than at the salle."

Which he demonstrated by fishing a pair of goggles and earmuffs out of their respective bins and offering them to Percy.

"Safety first, right?" Percy asked, ignoring that he could heal himself up from any injuries he gave himself. The point was that he didn't want the pain in the first place. "Am I gonna be able to hear you with these earmuffs on or should I wait on those?"

Wesley tapped his own pair by way of an answer.

"They only block out the louder noises," he explained. "The actual firing -- well, you just heard. You'll still be able to hear me talking."

~~According to Youtube.~~

"Cool," Percy said and slapped those earmuffs on his head. It probably made his head looker bigger than it was and mussed his hair but he didn't want perforated eardrums. "Look suitably idiotic?"

He was teasing though and was taking this seriously as evidenced by the sliding on the goggles and then rubbing his hands together.

"Even more so than usual, I'd say," Wesley observed with a hint of a smile.

Then he returned to being the businesslike Watcher-y sort. Like that was a new look for him.

"Now," he said, verifying that the safety was on as he held the gun up (sideways, facing away from both of them) for Percy to take a look at it. "This is a Browning nine-millimeter semi-automatic. Of the weapons I have, this should be the easiest to learn to use, and it offers the least recoil, so it's relatively easy to practice with."

Take in all the fancy gun words, Percy.

[[And now I am AFK for an hour or so while I run uptown!]]

"So, it's not gonna hit me in the face when I fire it basically," Percy said, recognizing the word recoil, at least. "That's comforting. How many guns do you own?"

Wesley had to think about that one. He had a whole bunch at home, but they weren't exactly his; they were Council property. But here with him at Fandom?

"Three," he answered. "But I generally practice with this one. You can hold it if you like, by the way. The safety's on, so it won't fire."

"Three guns plus the fencing sword, huh?" Percy asked, carefully taking the weapon. Holding it was different than the sword. This didn't feel as natural or as intuitive but he figured that was because Riptide was just a special weapon.

"Doesn't feel too weird," he said honestly, still getting used to the difference between one weapon and the other. "Not as heavy."

Wesley was watching Percy's reaction carefully. It always felt unnatural, the sensation of picking up a new weapon, at least for him, and it was interesting to see that Percy seemed to have that feeling as well.

"Precisely," he said. "It's much lighter, and it requires a whole different range of motions. While fencing depends on a set of almost swooping movements, marksmanship is much more about smaller, much more subtle motions."

He leaned in just enough to point out particular points on the gun. "With one of these, apart from aiming, your primary concern goes to three places. The safety, which is just there," he said, indicating a lever-like button along one side of it. "The actual trigger, which I trust you can figure out for yourself," he continued, but pointed to it nonetheless. "And this circle here at the top, which is what enables you to slide a bullet into the chamber to fire it. Of course, with the safety on, neither of those will work, as the purpose of it is to prevent the gun from firing."

Aaaand breathe.

"Yeah, no one wants to shoot themselves in the foot," Percy joked but repeated the words Wesley had just used to himself so he could remember them. Safety, trigger, chamber. He didn't think it was too hard but even Percy knew there was more to it than that.

"These things in roughly the same places on all guns?" Percy asked. Before Wesley answered, he added, "Besides like shotguns and stuff. I know those are different."

"Just about," came Wesley's reply. The idea that he might be giving too much information all at once hadn't even occured to him. Thanks, Watchers' Academy. "Occasionally you'll find the safety on the opposite side, but really it's usually the same setup, given that most people are right-handed."

Which didn't matter for him, since he could shoot lefty just as well, but it was the principle of the thing.

Percy nodded before hefting the gun a few times, making sure to keep the barrel pointed away. "You wanna shoot it a few times, show me how to control the kick and everything?"

"Oh, certainly," Wesley said, taking it back. Before shooting, he took a moment to reorient himself, aligning his fingers in the most worn part of the leather grip. "As I said, the recoil isn't terrible on this one, but it will push back just slightly against your hand." After drawing his goggles back over his eyes, he brought up his unoccupied hand to the back of the gun and instructed, "You want to use your left hand to brace the back of the gun, like so, and that should keep your hand firm."

He lined up his shot with the target, clicked the safety off, cocked it, and shot. The shot rang throughout the room and breezed through the target as usual. Then he slid the safety back on and turned to face Percy. "Simple as that, really."

Or he made it look simple. Same thing.

Yeah, Percy was more leaning towards the fact that Wesley was making it look simple because he'd been at this longer than Percy did. Still, he was gonna appear confidence, at least.

"Simple," he agreed, holding out his hand again. "Yeah, that didn't look so bad. Movies make it look so much worse."

"The bulk of the work is in lining up your shot," he explained. "Guns as light as this one are fairly easy to use."

And he just kept on with the making it sound easy thing.

"So, here, if you can identify the three parts I showed you just now, you can go ahead and give it a try," he offered.

"Got it," Percy said, taking the spot Wesley had just been standing in so he could get a better line towards the target. He started to raise the gun and then remembered the safety.

That got clicked off so he raised the gun again and tried to aim the gun. He even closed an eye, making himself look stupid, but it helped and he hesitated. Pulling a trigger wasn't easy, oddly enough. He took a breath, counted to ten and pulled the trigger.

The shot went very wide and the kick back had him stepping back to catch his balance. So, yeah. Not as easy as it looked.

The smug part of Wesley was remembering the last time he had staggered back from a recoil like that, which had been when he was about thirteen. But the part of him that liked teaching people? That part was nodding approvingly.

"Not bad," he said, which was kind of a lie. "I should have mentioned it's a good idea to plant your feet as well, rather like when you're fencing."

Percy blinked and scowled at the missed target. He looked at the gun which saved him from looking over at Wesley. "Are you trying not to laugh?"

Well...

"A bit," he admitted, releasing a little chuckle. "I'm sorry! You'll improve. Er. Somewhat. Most likely."

It was hard not to, with that kind of starting point.

"Yeah, yeah," Percy said, gripping the butt of the gun again and setting himself up to take another shot. "Don't apologize. I can't be the worst shot in the world so there's that."

"I assure you, you aren't that bad," Wesley laughed. "There were others far worse than you around the time that I was learning to shoot."

Well, yeah, because they were nine years old.

"Here, try it again, but this time, try to keep your entire body still and grounded with the exception of the trigger finger," he suggested.

"You should have told me that the first time," Percy said crankily mostly because he hadn't been really good immediately and he wanted to take it out on someone. "I would have done better."

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Shooting Range, Wednesday Afternoon

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