Video

[theweakhavepurpose]

[The video turns on to show the outskirts of town, nearby is a fence of sorts made of junk Pratt collected from the Colosseum and some baling wire. It's encircling a fancy new shooting range complete with training dummies and targets and some other items that aren't immediately identifiable.

Okay fancy isn't the right word, everything is made of remnants he found and some of the targets are empty soup cans on sticks but it looks serviceable.]

This is Deputy Pratt. I know we're all busy freezing to death, but if you'd like to take your mind off that, I've finally got this all together. Range is up and running!

It's set up by the orchard, or well.. where the orchard should be anyway.

[He pans the camera towards the orchard to show where it is and then starts walking towards the range. The camera is surprisingly steady, this is someone who has filmed hundreds of Vine videos of him and other deputies doing stupid stuff on slow days. He's a pro at this shit.]

I've got training dummies up front for anyone who wants to get their melee fighting on. But uh.. try not to completely destroy them because I don't have a ton of wood to fix them up.

For the range itself I've got targets at 10 meters, 25 meters, 50 and 100. It's not perfect because I'm measuring this with my feet, but it's close enough. Spinner targets are for guns, and the bigger baled ones are dirt and wood so they shouldn't chew up your arrows too bad.

This thing is a work in progress.

[He sets a can onto a contraption off to the side of the range, stomping his foot on a pedal and sending it shooting down the lane and a little to the left. The camera gets unsteady here as he launches a knife that's far too big for this at the can and it tumbles to the ground.]

Keeps shooting them off to the side, but it's better than throwing something and then trying to hit it.

As for weapons... [He walks over to a large but very battered chest and opens the lid.]

I've got some throwing knives that aren't stupid like the hunting knife I have. A few bows. And some arrows in here. Keep them in this crate because the weather is not kind to bowstrings and you don't want these things snapping when you're shooting.

It's on the honor system because I'm not going to freeze my ass off monitoring this twenty-four seven. So try not to burn it down in the next two days.

[Please guys. He worked hard on this. Don't set it on fire.]

Comments

[theweakhavepurpose]

Couple of weeks of gathering stuff, mostly before we moved. And then a few days to get it all set up.

[And another few hours of him trying to figure out how many feet are in a meter and how big his feet are and doing math that he really didn't want to do.]

Hoping it works out alright. I know we don't have a lot of ammo so some of it's pointless but... gave me something to do.

[storyseeker]

That's more than a lot of us have.

[She gives him a crooked smile.]

I just wish ammo wasn't at such a premium. Knife-throwing's something I only tried at the renaissance fair, but shooting at some targets would be a nice way to blow off steam.

[theweakhavepurpose]

You can try some archery. Get in the renaissance faire spirit.

Maybe we'll find some mead.

[Man he hasn't thought about a ren faire in years and years.]

[storyseeker]

Add some wench garb and a jousting tournament and we'd have everything covered.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Maybe if it stops being twenty degrees.

We'd need some horses too. [He looks marginally happier about that prospect.] That'd be kinda nice actually. The ground is a little pocked and uneven for riding, but we could make some pathways. Way better than the mopeds.

[storyseeker]

Depending who you ask, cold weather can only add to the appeal of wench garb.

[They're tittytastic.]

God. You're making me wish we really could make something like that. TOo bad about the whole 'survival situation' thing.

[theweakhavepurpose]

[ He actually laughs, his mind in the gutter. ]

I keep thinking, maybe once we have this survival thing sorted out we can start to relax and work on other things. But then something always happens. There's a storm or everyone goes temporarily crazy or the whole damn city moves.

So I figured there's no point in waiting, which is why I built the range. Otherwise there'll never be a 'good time' for it.

[storyseeker]

And it's something that helps people blow off steam and work on some useful skills. That's a double win...and we can use all the wins we can get.

...so are you any good at coaching archery? Because I never tried that booth at the renfaire, and last time I shot an arrow, I hit myself in the foot.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Not at all. I can show you how to keep the bowstring from snapping, and I can hit targets but that's about it. My only experience is fucking around with a bow we took off of someone at the station.

I can probably keep you from hitting your feet though. But no promises.

[storyseeker]

If you do your best, that's enough. Last time around the arrow had a rubber tip, but something tells me it'd hurt more now.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Yeah we'd be carting you off to the clinic. After we got your foot unattached from the ground that is.

I wouldn't worry too much though, just aim at the targets and you should be somewhere in the general vicinity.

[storyseeker]

That's a start, right? I'll come by later, then.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Sounds good. I'll be here all day.

[He'll be around, tidying up and building more targets.]