Video || 01

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Pratt is sitting on the lower bunk of his tiny-house, part of his machine gun visible to the side and a wood plank wall behind him. He's wearing his deputy outfit again, his hair in neat braids thanks to Kettara.]

Before this whole talk of moving I was starting to set up a target range because I'm getting rusty. Figured since we have a lot of people who are experienced with firearms, arrows, knives, whatever, that I'd set it up so anyone can use it.

I've made a few spinner targets and I found a few wooden target dummies near the Colosseum but they're in rough shape so they need some clean up. I was working on a skeet shooter, but my plan to use a motor from a moped didn't work since they're electric and full of pointless plastic crap instead of useful gearbelts.

[He shakes his head, frowning at broadcasting his failure to everyone. He hadn't meant to say that.]

That's not the point.

Since we're apparently being shuffled to the next livestock pasture for us, I'm going to hold off setting it up until we're there.

What else would you guys like? Anyone need something to stand up to a crossbow? Or more intricate for throwing stars? And this shouldn't be a problem here, but I'm preemptively letting you know that there's no flamethrowers allowed at my range.

[He narrows his eyes at the screen before shutting off the feed. He definitely looks like he's adding that caveat because he's encountered that problem before.]

Comments

[theweakhavepurpose]

Wouldn't that be great to have here? I want to look up how to fix my damn roof, but nope, now I gotta hope that someone who shows up here happens to be a roofer.

Though I guess it doesn't matter since we'll be moving soon anyway.

[Ephemera is an.. odd name. But he's not going to comment on it.]

Deputy Pratt. Er, well, just Pratt. I keep doing that as if I'm still on the force in this place.

[requiemshark]

I know, right? I can ask Drake if you want, though. He's pretty good with that sort of stuff.

[ It might not extend to roofing, but who knows.

Oh, he knows how weird his name is. He definitely knows. ]

No reason not to, I guess. Nobody's enforcing the chain of command but the skills come in handy.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Drake?

Nah, don't bother, if we're gonna be moving, it won't matter. I have it mostly patched. My chimney blew off during the storm.

Do they? Haven't yet. At least I don't feel like they have.

[requiemshark]

Drake Holloway. He's here, too.

[ Ephemera's tone is soft and fond. ]

No shit. At least you're still in one piece.

[ He hums. ]

You know how to use a gun, right? How to talk to people? That's useful as hell.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Sure, assuming we can somehow get more guns. I checked out the armory attached to one of the temples but it's all swords.

All I've got with me is an M60, and that thing chews through ammo like there's no tomorrow.

[requiemshark]

That's been an ongoing problem.

Shit. That all you got?

[theweakhavepurpose]

And a sledgehammer. And a shovel.

But as far as firepower that's it. I'm lucky to even have that considering where I was right before here.
I've got a key to the armory at the station, and one to Jacob's barracks, but that's not really gonna help us here.

[requiemshark]

Sledgehammer can be good. You know how to use it in a fight?

[ It's not an easy weapon, unwieldily as all fuck, but Ephemera's always been a scrapper. He uses every available resource. ]

If it's back in Montana, probably not. I'm lucky I came in with all my gear.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Yeah I do.

[He's mostly used it to smash up tvs and to flood a bunker, but he could definitely use it in a fight. Sure it's balanced all wrong and he looks like he has the upper body strength of cooked pasta, but that's never stopped him before. He's a lot stronger than he looks, Jacob made sure of that. ]

Especially if your armor makes fucking napalm. That's amazing. I wonder what determines what we show up with, I definitely wasn't holding the gun back home.

[And he also didn't show up tied to a chair.]

[requiemshark]

Good. It'll help if you meet somebody like me, who's armored up. [ Someone who's less friendly, he means. ]

I make the napalm. The HUD just shows me how. And yeah, I don't know. Armor makes sense for me. I was pretty much sleeping in it back then. But it seems like people show up with stuff they were using, even if it wasn't in the exact moment.

[theweakhavepurpose]

That armor no good against blunt force trauma?

[He's half expecting if he hit someone wearing armor that the sledgehammer would bounce back and catch him full in the face.]

How do you piss in that thing?

[requiemshark]

Not exactly. I got kicked off a moving train in this thing. Hurt like hell, but I lived.

It's armor, it's got weak points like anything. You really wanna know, come spar with me sometime.

[ Doesn't hurt to show people how to take down somebody in armor. Just in case Felix shows up. ]

Carefully.

[theweakhavepurpose]

You could break me in half. I'm not even wearing kevlar.

[requiemshark]

I can show you how to not get broken in half.

[ He's trying to be kinder these days, more considerate of what other people might need. And barely anyone here has armor. Least he can do is show them how to survive against someone who does. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

[He hesitates, asking for help is akin to admitting weakness. But he's not in the cult anymore. This is a whole different place and a new set of rules.]

That'd be appreciated. I don't have much experience without a firearm, and especially not against armor.

[requiemshark]

Believe me, that shit comes in handy here. Just let me know when.

[theweakhavepurpose]

After the move and I set up my range, I'll let you know.