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]

Yeah but I miss the orchard. I don't know if it'll fruit given how cold it is, but I can't eat canned shit forever.

Okay, I could, but I really don't want to.

[His face is fucked up enough without him faceplanting off a building.]

[dedikated]

( Better canned shit than Rage's Mystery Meat, as any Hadriel oldbie will tell you. )

Won't be that lucky. ( If any of them were, they'd not be in Hadriel. ) But there's prob'ly someone who has powers to help the plants.

( Come to think of it, doesn't she know a prickly little priest who likes green shit way too much? )

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Pratt wouldn't make a good wendigo anyway.]

Hey I'm trying to be positive here. I'm the king of pessimism, working on that.

[You're not helping by being all realistic and saying what he wants to.]

[dedikated]

( Deal with it~. )

Didn't realise I were talking to royalty.

[theweakhavepurpose]

King Pratt the Pessimist. With my loyal subjects, the wolves who aren't here.

Though I'm glad they didn't come with me. This place doesn't need a dozen wolves on top of everything else.

[dedikated]

( Well, the sad traumatised mountain children had one. Whatever happened to Wolfie, now that she thinks about it? Did he go home with the lot of them? )

Dozen things that can kill people coming into Hadriel sounds normal.

( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

[theweakhavepurpose]

I'm more worried about what they'd eat. You know how much food a single wolf needs in a day?

That's a hell of a lot of meat.

[dedikated]

( She honestly doesn't. Kate can't say she's spent that much time around wolves, really. )

How d'you end up with twelve wolves, anyway?

[theweakhavepurpose]

There were twenty. We lost some.

Technically they're not mine, but I feed them. They belong to Jacob. To the Project.

They like me better though.

[So suck on that everyone in the cult. The wolves like Pratt more than them. Nyah nyah nyah.]

[dedikated]

( Well, she's never had a single pet, unless you count that one event where people kept having animals shadow them, or that one Fennec which kept shadowing her. So the concept of having several wolves not only follow you but like you is one Kate can't relate to even in the most abstract of ways. )

Didn't think wolves could 'belong' to anyone. ( Like, really, what's a person going to do if a wolf decides to leave? Tell them "no, I paid for you"? )

[theweakhavepurpose]

That's what domestication is all about.

Wild animals don't belong to anyone, and they'll let you know it.

[dedikated]

( And isn't that just why they seem like far more interesting animals than domesticated ones? )

Things here have proven that.

( They might get labelled monsters, but aren't monsters just another type of animal, really? Same as humans. )

[theweakhavepurpose]

I guess we could try and domesticate the mammoth things. But we'd need a lot of resources we don't have here. More fencing for starters.

Some herding dogs.

...Or wolves.

[dedikated]

( Did that make Kate snort in amusement? Yeah, maybe. )

It always come back to wolves with you?

[theweakhavepurpose]

I miss them okay.

[He's admitting a weakness here. It pains him.]

[dedikated]

( Look if anyone understands how painful admitting a weakness is...

Kate's voice softens a little there. )

Think that makes you like anyone else here.

( Not wolves, but so many other things. And people. )

[theweakhavepurpose]

I guess. Maybe.

There's some people who are happier here.

[dedikated]

( She supposes there are some people who prefer Hadriel to whatever their situation is back in their world, but she can't relate to that.


Maybe to the happiness. Sometimes. When she can forget what she's been missing. )

S'pose. ( Hm. ) Not that black and white.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Of course not, but people like to default to it being so simple.

Though I guess everyone misses something from back home.

[dedikated]

Got to miss not getting fucked with every month.

( Like, is there anyone who actually enjoys the gods' attempts at stirring their emotions more than a stable existence? Anyone who doesn't just tolerate them? )

[theweakhavepurpose]

I get fucked with on a daily basis, so this might actually be better. But all this doesn't seem.. real. Like there's no purpose to being here.

So this still feels worse.

[dedikated]

Purpose is to save the gods. ( A beat of silence and a hum at her own words, considering. ) ... Not much of one.

( Especially for those who don't like the gods or care for their continued survival. )

[theweakhavepurpose]

What's the point of having a purpose you don't care about though?

[dedikated]

( Another soft sound, a wordless response to his question, but a thoughtful one. )

Something to do?

( She's never really had to ask herself the question. She always has cared about her purposes. Even her promise to Faith, to help the gods, so wrecked by Delight's betrayal and always with the weight of what if they're lying hanging over it, is something she cares about. If only because she made that promise to Faith. )

[theweakhavepurpose]

Sure but then it seems like a waste of time. Busy work so your mind doesn't realize that it's pointless.

I don't know, I'm probably overthinking it and should just accept that I'm here and deal with it.

[But he doesn't want to.]