milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Alyx Vance is back in the Bar, sipping a milkshake and tinkering with her Lego robot. This is nothing unusual, for her.

The "I ♥ NY" T-shirt, on the other hand, is a new addition.

[tinytag: Alyx Vance, Captain Viscen, Gordon Freeman, Jennifer Landers]

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"Shameful. It's enough to make you wonder how they keep order."

"They have very strict laws about carrying firearms," says Alyx flatly. "That probably helps."

A slightly confused pause.

"Weapons, I assume?"

Alyx nods and pulls out her gun so that Viscen can see it. "Like this."

"It's very small. What does it do?"

"When you pull this trigger, it shoots metal projectiles out of this hole," says Alyx, pointing to the appropriate parts. "Hard enough to punch through flesh and break bones."

!

"How does such a small mechanism move them so fast?"

He's thinking there must be a cog system inside it.

Alyx hesitates a moment, trying to decide the best way to explain this.

"Basically, each projectile has a very small bomb on the back end. When the bomb goes off, it explodes outward, but there's nowhere for things to go except out the opening in front, so it pushes the projectile out."

D:

"Is it accurate?"

Please, gods, let this never come to Termina. He job is hard enough as it is.

"Depends on the model. This particular one is very accurate."

There's more than a little pride in her voice. She built that gun herself, y'know.

He catches that pride, and it confuses him--it seems like these weapons would be a serious problem.

"How do you defend against them?"

"By wearing armor, and staying behind cover, and making sure you shoot first."

"Then how do you protect civilians from them?"

"By... making sure they don't get in a situation where guns are likely to be used?"

"But if every petty thief has one," and he knows the scum of Clocktown would jump on the opportunity, "how would you keep them from using them?"

"I told you, they have laws about it," says Alyx as patiently as she can manage. "You can get in a lot of trouble for just carrying a gun you don't have a permit for."

"It seems awfully dangerous..." But is it really all that different from letting anyone come into town and buy a bomb?

"I suppose the fact that the city is still standing is proof that the system works at least on some level, though."

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