Andrea Nash - Firing Range

[masterofgunfu]

 Andrea is making the best of what she sees as a bad situation. Bar had refused to give her either real guns or live ammunition but had instead given her two pistols armed with paintballs. Now Andrea is alternating between single targets and multiple, all the while growing more and more frustrated as stray breezes are messing with her aim. Of course, her idea of bad aim–5-10 mm off–might not be the same as anyone else's.

Damn but she misses her P226s.

[OOC: And just to avoid confusion, Millitimed to the day before Ellen's return EP.]

Comments

[battle_butler]

Alfred is, surprisingly enough for him, in slacks and a polo shirt. The fact that he's currently in the middle of a jog round the lake, might be reason enough to explain this.

It also means he may well end up near enough to see Andrea. Considering what she's using? He's impressed.

[masterofgunfu]

She likely smelled his after shave before she heard him (assuming Alfred would smell more of after shave than sweat, even when jogging) but she's still kept track of him. If he gets within shouting distance she'll hold her fire just incase. It'd be terrible to stain such well cared for clothes.

[battle_butler]

Oh yes he does. Especially on a day like today, where it's hardly warm enough to work a proper sweat up.

When he gets close enough, he notes that she's stopped firing and holds his pace up a little.

"Good afternoon," he calls as he approaches.

[masterofgunfu]

"Sir," she replies with a smile. "I just wanted to make sure nothing stray caught you. These won't cause injury but I'd hate to be responsible for ruining those nice clothes."

[battle_butler]

Alfred meets her smile with one of his own.

"I'm grateful for your consideration. Though, looking at those targets, I think I'd only be in danger if I chose to run across your line of fire. I have no plans to do that."

[masterofgunfu]

Oddly, a blush colors her cheeks.

"Well the wind is playing havoc with my aim but thank you. I wish I had real firearms but I left mine back home and Bar wouldn't give me any despite my promises to only use them for practice."

[battle_butler]

"Paintball pistols have a limit on their accuracy regardless of how good the shooter is. It's a function of them firing paintballs, rather than rifled rounds. Same was true of muskets. Personally, I'd say you've found it. Especially given the wind. Of course, you probably know all that already."

[masterofgunfu]

"Well, kind of not really," Andrea admits, though the compliment pleases her. "I mean, I assumed that was going to happen but we don't have things like these back home. Still, I feel like I'm playing with a kid's toy.

"I'd have thought the muskets would be too heavy or would need a stronger wind than this?"

[battle_butler]

Alfred half chuckles at her comments about them being kid's toys.

"Heavens, no. Musket balls just don't come out the barrel straight in the first place. Elementary fact due to the ball being slightly smaller than the barrel, for ease of manufacture and use, so it bobbles around slightly inside."

[masterofgunfu]

...

"How did they ver hit anything?!?" Andrea asks incredulously. Warning Alfred, you may have walked into a lecture on ballistics.

[battle_butler]

More to the point, a lecture on how war was waged 'back in the day' (Long, long before Alfred's day).

"Short range, firing at large blocks of men," Alfred says calmly. "More by luck than judgement for any individual shot, and you needed to be able to deal with the remnant in melee, but it worked well enough, chuck enough mud and all that. And of course, the noise and smoke terrified horses."

[masterofgunfu]

"But Davy Crockett was an excellent marksmen," Andrea counters. Don't mess with her culture icons there Alfred. "And he used a musket rifle."

[battle_butler]

"Yes. A rifle, not a smooth-bore. And it was the original smooth-bores that had the accuracy issues. Same as with those, really," he says gesturing to the pistols Andrea's holding. "It's exactly what rifling was invented to solve."

[masterofgunfu]

"Longer barrel give the ball time to get a good spin while you can still have a chance of control its path?" she guesses.

[battle_butler]

"Rifling makes the round spin in a controlled manner. So, it deviates far less from it's intended trajectory," Alfred replies. Then, he continues, clarifying, "The original rifles were the same length and design as a standard smooth-bore musket of the time, but had a, I'm not quite sure, but I'd guess about 50% increase in accuracy, relative to the smooth-bore."

[masterofgunfu]

"Was this when they started the spiral bore to guide the path as well or was that later?"

[battle_butler]

"That is rifling," Alfred says, smiling.

[knightoftheswan]

The Knight has never seen the likes of paintball pistols before.

They look.....fun.

Lohengrin was out planning to get one last practice session before his hunting trip but it almost seems a shame to spoil what Andrea's done. (And the color of her hair isn't helping.)

So when she has to reload, he takes the pause to say, "You're an excellent shot."

[masterofgunfu]

She's aware he's there before she paused to reload though since he didn't approach closer, she decided to keep firing. He smells of metal and polishing oil, enough so that Andrea wonders if he's a knight of the Order.

"Thanks," she calls out to answer. "Still getting the hang of these though. The pellets are really light and so the wind is an issue. More so than with a bow even."

[knightoftheswan]

"They're just little pellets of paint?"

He supposes they get the job done. Assuming their job is just target practice.

[masterofgunfu]

She flushes then.

"Yes. The Bar wouldn't give me a real weapon to practice with."

[knightoftheswan]

He has to keep his mouth shut a moment otherwise he'll try ordering her not to blush around him. As it is, his own cheeks are slightly tinted red.

"I've not tried getting weapons from the Bar. But then, I've not seen weapons like those before, practice or real."

Lohengrin holds up his bow.

"I imagine arrows might be more satisfying."

[masterofgunfu]

"Likely but I don't have a bow with good pull here and I'm sure Bar wouldn't give me one either. Would you like to give these a try in exchange for a turn with your bow?" It looks to be a nice bow, well cared for and crafted.

[knightoftheswan]

Parsifal taught the Knight well. Lohengrin looks over his bow, considering.

The blush gets a little darker when he admits, "I've never let a woman use my bow before."

[masterofgunfu]

Andrea gives him a look.

"Well, I wouldn't want to damage such a pretty, little thing," she says with no emotion to her voice. Given her size and sex, she's faced narrow views on a woman's place so she might have a chip on her shoulder. Sorry Lohengrin. She's really wishing she had her John Maus Lonewolf longbow or her hand-made Yumi.

[knightoftheswan]

He's unfortunately not used to that look in this context, though he at least has the good sense to know he's in trouble. After all, he might not have been married for long but he was married.

"It's not..." he starts. "I mean I- I'm not used to this at home. It's not something my mother or my wife would ever do."

Before anything else falls out of his mouth, he holds his bow out to her.

[masterofgunfu]

Andrea sighs and closes her eyes. Opening them, she says much more diplomatically, "No. I apologize. How about I get a practice bow from Bar and you can gauge my skill before offering your bow. I know I'd want to be assured of the skill of someone before I let them use a weapon of mine."

[knightoftheswan]

"I've no doubt of your skill," he says, gesturing to the targets.

Lohengrin shakes his head some.

"I'm very out of place here. In time, that is. And everything I know from home doesn't fit."

So it's not much but at least he's aware of it.

[masterofgunfu]

And now she's feeling guilty. Damnit.

"Okay, fair enough. Let's start with names. I am Andrea Nash," she begins, then decides to add, "knight-defender of the Order fo Merciful Aid." She doesn't through her rank and job at everyone here but this guy seems like he might appreciate it.

[knightoftheswan]

Oh wow, Lohengrin isn't sure he knows how to deal with this, to the point that he has to hold his tongue lest he ask if he should address Andrea with Lady or Sir.

"I am Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swan," he says with a bow, because bowing isn't wrong, right?

[masterofgunfu]

She returns the bow a bit awkwardly.

"It's an honor Lo...Sir Lohengrin. And just so you know, I'm not truly knighted. We don't have a king or royalty. In my world, well my country, the Order is strictly ranked by merit. It's more a job title than anything royal or religious.

"I've had nearly eight years in the field now and two years of training at the Academy before that. I know how to fight hand to hand or which a variety of ranged weapons. Just keep any swords away from me or I'm likely to take my own foot off with it." She gives a laugh to make sure Lohengrin knows it's okay to laugh too.

[knightoftheswan]

Lohengrin does give her a light chuckle.

"Most impressive, Lady Andrea," he says. "And people often overlook that the work of a knight is just that."

When he straightens up, he offers his bow to her again.

"Let me try this again: I've never let anyone use my bow before. But I'll make an exception for you in exchange for the use of your practice weaponry."

[presspasskey]

Lois is exploring. Why? Because back home, she's searching for her little sister and is, frankly, incredibly frustrated with the lack of progress. To think her little sister is an experienced enough international criminal to just up and vanish like that.

Besides, time with her dad has her even more frustrated.

However, this is not a face she expected to see here, or engaged in this activity.

"Chloe?"

[[if i can do that? <3]]

[masterofgunfu]

Just as she got close enough to shout, Andrea stops firing and reloads. Totally by chance really, no super human senses here.

At the inquiry she look sup with a smile and a shake of her head. "Nope. Andrea actually."

[hasthehighground]

Clint's calmed down from earlier (he makes a habit not to shoot when he's aggravated; well, unless he has to), so he's headed to the range. He's still dressed in dress pants and a dress shirt, but his blazer and tie are back at the bar leaving his holstered HK P30 clearly visible.

He has a pair of range earmuffs hooked around his neck; he doesn't put them on as he approaches (from behind the shooting line, at an oblique angle so he should be visible), because the paintball guns aren't actually that loud.

He nods to her when he's closer; during a pause, he says: "How're those working out for you?"

He's never used pistols in paintballing. He relies on the rest of his team to do the close work, usually.

[masterofgunfu]

She appreciates his manner of approach even if she isn't working with deadly ammo. She also takes in his walk and he weapon and pegs him as a professional. Which means she's been caught playing with toys by someone who would be a peer.

Fighting a blush she aims for casual. "I'd be much better with live ammo and real guns but it'll have to do. I left mine back home and Bar wouldn't give me anything else."

[hasthehighground]

"I heard that could happen," he says. He doesn't really pick up on her embarrassment as being that, so much as generalized discomfort for working with something she usually doesn't. "You could make a killing at paintball, if you went in against a betting group." Given the whole short, blonde, female thing. A lot of paintballers are college guys; stupidity happens.

He grins a bit, ruefully: "For some reason, people never fall for it when I try that."

Paintball is great.

[masterofgunfu]

She lowers the pistol after setting whatever passes for a safety before saying, "Wait, this is what a sport or something?"

She's heard of sports involving firearms from the past but this is a new one for her. Maybe you get points by how many tags you manage versus how few you get?

[hasthehighground]

"Yeah," he says, kind of surprised. "Mostly low-key, where you go to a site and get a pass for the day. As a set team, or making teams with strangers, unless it's a free-for-all. It's pretty fun, especially when you're up against people who know what they're doing."

He would've guessed she was from the U.S. or Canada, around his time. Unless she's from the eighties, before paintball got big. "Where're you in from? U.S., 2011, here."

[masterofgunfu]

"Atlanta, 2040, in what's left of the US. And that sounds like a lot of fun." Andrea replies with a wicked grin and a healthy dose of her Texas twang. "Assuming you could collect enough folks to play."

[OOC: And now I have a clear in game reason for her to try and start a game! Thank you!]

[hasthehighground]

"It's great," he says, grinning back at her, and extends a hand. "Clint Barton. I was going to guess cop," he adds, "but I have no idea the legal system in your world."

He's less thrown by what's left of the U.S. than he would've been last visit. Disasters and apocalypses seem to be dime a dozen around here; even more important, the boss visits, and Clint trusts Fury to keep an eye on things.

[OOC: Ahahaha, AWESOME *__*.]

[masterofgunfu]

"Kind of close actually. I'm a knight of the Order of Merciful Aid, sort of a non-profet police force. On my world we have magic waves that come and go leaving behind nasty surprises. The main police force does what they can but they are underfunded and under manned. If you have a problem you next option is the Mercenary Guide but services can be pretty costly. That's where the Order comes in. We change on a sliding scale to make sure we can help everyone."

[hasthehighground]

"Huh. So, you're ... a knight?"

That's really weird. Cool, but weird.

[hasthehighground]

[OOC: I'm sorry! I am running a low fever, so I really don't know how "here" I am going to be for the next few days. I'll try to keep on top of things.]