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[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.]

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[ It took Drake a little while to catch up on everything... he was shocked to learn he was on ice for an entire month, and all that had happened in the city. Sorrow and Confusion returning, Sorrow leaving followed by Confusion's antics, the strange new creatures setting off a stampede and attempting to kill (and indeed killing, in one instance) the people they came across.... it's enough that Drake's reeling a little from disorientation, especially walking through the city seeing the ruin the stampede caused. He's also rebuilding his strength, not on patrols at the moment just in case, so he's got some time on his hands. But if he just hid in the apartment backreading the network he'd go stir crazy so as soon as he feels well enough there is one place he wanted to help out. Pratt had posted about a range?

When Drake gets out to the spot by the orchard, it's in all kind of disarray. A lot of it will need considerable repair, but he's good for that. He brought his tools, and he's handy. He lifts a broken target off the ground and examines the trampled wood, decides it'll need to be reinforced, and gets to work.

Pratt will find him hammering away, reinforcing stands and rebuilding dummies. He's being helpful! And though he's absorbed in his work, he isn't oblivious because of it -- the second he hears footsteps his head snaps up. ]

Oh. Hey.

[Pratt has spent far too much time out at the range trying to chase the mammoths off and force them to stampede around the perimeter rather than straight through. He hasn't been entirely successful and half his range is in shambles.

Pratt isn't looking so great himself staying out far too long into exhaustion. He had to sleep sometimes, even he couldn't push himself forever. ~~weak~~. ]

Morning. Are you.. fixing those?

[Obviously he is, but Pratt hadn't expected to see anyone else out there, let alone someone helping him. ]

Thanks.

[ It's obvious, but Drake doesn't look confused by the question. He just sets down the frame he was repairing and dusts his hands off, offering one to shake. His hands are cold but his smile is warm. ]

Yeah, I needed to do something. It's Deputy Pratt, right? I'm Drake Holloway -- sorry I haven't been by sooner, it looked like this was a good setup. We'll get it back up and running. If you wanted the help, that is.

[There's only the barest hint of hesitation as he shakes his hand. The gesture is so common back home that it almost seems bizarre here. And after the whole memory transfer thing he's not super keep on touching anyone.]

Yeah. That's me.

No no, I do. I just wasn't expecting anyone to be out here working on it.

[Especially someone he didn't know.]

Mammoth-things did a number on this place. All of it, not just the range. Have we found out what they're running from?

[ Drake nods, reassured he didn't overstep by starting his work. He turns and surveys the damage again, remembers what he saw throughout the city on the way here... yeah. ]

They did a number on a lot of things, it's lucky people were able to keep them away from the housing. And uh... I don't know for sure, but it sure sounds like those tentacled things that attacked the three guys? Like they were creating a diversion.

I guess it could be coincidence, but when is it ever?

It's never a coincidence here. I feel like everything has ulterior motives almost.

[He shakes his head.]

They're smart if they know enough to distract people while they do..whatever it is they were doing. Haven't talked to any of the guys who saw it, but it doesn't seem like they know what the creatures were doing either.

Guess we need the range more than ever if we're gonna need to protect ourselves. Just gotta figure out how to get more ammo. Loads more ammo.

They're not sure, and I don't think the gods have answered anyone asking if they know what those things were. We might be on our own dealing with it.

[ As for ammo. Hm. ]

I've got some, but to get more we need Rage. She trades a clip for whatever weapon you use in exchange for a monster corpse, and there are plenty of those lying around now. Whenever she gets back the people who killed them should get something for it.

Mammoths and now tentacle things. Great. At least the mammoths could be sort of scared into running different directions. Or shield bashed and stabbed into changing course.

[Pratt took defending his range a little bit too seriously. Maybe took out some pent up aggression and frustration out on poor terrified stampeding animals.]

That's what people have been telling me, but does us no good when she's not here. And I don't know about you, but I don't really want to hold onto anything dead for months.

I think the smell of rotting corpses just washed out of my uniform.

Hopefully it won't be months, and the cold should keep them from rotting -- there's a pile of carcasses just outside the city, people have been dragging them out. Maybe we can just point her at them and get our shit for it.

[ Then he blinks. ]

Why did your uniform smell like rotting corpses...?

A pile of ammo in return for a pile of corpses. I didn't know it worked like that. I should have tried harder to kill some of those mammoths that were stampeding, I was too concerned with getting them to go around the range.

Because I was around a lot of them. That shit sticks with you.

[That's normal right?]

I think we killed plenty, we'll have meat for months. They were just scared, anyway... didn't really deserve it, I blame the tentacles things. And we'll get more corpses after the Door opens again, for sure.

[ Uh huh. That's not normal at all, Pratt. Drake is back to work as he talks, though, mending another frame. ]

My ex worked in a morgue, so I kinda know how that is. Not the case for you?

Too bad no one managed to kill one of those things. Not that I want to eat it, but I'd rather it be dead than starting stampedes.

[he hesitates, wondering how much he should say. Not everyone knows about the cult, and far fewer people know his part in that, and he'd like to keep it that way.]

I'm a Deputy, there's been a lot of murders back home.

[Not the whole story, but at least that's true.]

Too bad for a bunch of reasons. I kinda know the guy that they killed, and he's a badass with magic. If he couldn't defend himself it's bad news for everybody.

[ Drake wasn't around for it, or the stampede, but he read through all the posts carefully. It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, one more reason to put off asking to be made human again. ]

Yeah? That sucks. The cops don't usually deal with the corpses, though.

Well that doesn't bode well for the rest of us. Especially boring humans like me.

[he's not making assumptions about Drake, for all he knows the guy can bench press a blue whale and shoot lasers out of his eyes. Anything is possible here.]

Ever heard of Hope County, Montana? I'm twenty-five percent of the entire police force. It's not like we have a special squad for homicides.

From what I read he was hitting their shells instead of their faces, it'll be about aiming carefully I bet.

[ Drake can do neither of those things, but he does have a certain advantage he doesn't share. For now he just nods, letting Pratt believe he's human like he wants to be. ]

I haven't, no. You only have four cops for a town with enough people to bury you in corpses? Sounds like you need to call in the cavalry. [ He hesitates, then... ] I was an undercover cop in Seattle. Joint task force between vice and major crimes.

Yeah go for the squishy bits.

Well we brought in the US Marshall, but that... made things worse.

Seattle huh? Never been there, but I've seen the pictures of Rainier from the Space Needle. That's quite a view.

[Who cares about the cop stuff, tell him about the mountains.]

Oh. Sorry, then. Our big guns are usually FBI and they're pretty helpful.

[ He's running in very different circles, though. And sure, they can talk about scenery. ]

Yeah, it's a great view. And a pretty cool city, not that I've lived anywhere else but I've traveled a little. How's Hope County? Somewhere that small, it sounds like you'd have a view, too.

Edited 2019-01-07 16:47 (UTC)

The US Marshall came in and started throwing his weight around, didn't understand the situation. And it just escalated from there.

He's dead now, so learned his lesson.

[He didn't much care for Burke, and while he feels for the situation he was in with Faith drugging him to kingdom come, he's not exactly sad he's dead.]

Big sky country, and it lives up to it. Best hunting and fishing in the whole state. You can climb up to the top of the Whitetail Mountains and get a view of the entire valley. It's gorgeous.

[Well, it was before the cult started leaving corpses everywhere.]

[ That's pretty harsh, Drake thinks... and you can't actually learn anything if you're dead, but he doesn't know the guy to be sympathetic or not. Doesn't know Pratt to say anything about it, just lets it go and nods his understanding of the other man's assessment, then listens to the description of his hometown. ]

Sounds great. Just not a 'surrounded by corpses' kind of situation. Something big happened, huh?

[There was a lot more caring before he saw literally hundreds of murders.]

We're having a situation with a cult. The Project at Eden's gate. They're basically running around murdering all the Sinners who won't join them.

And then the town is killing them back.

It's a fucking shitshow.

[ Drake blinks, and doesn't bother trying to hide his surprise. Whatever he was thinking, it certainly wasn't a genocidal cult. ]

Seriously? That's insane. I've heard of cults killing all their own followers because of whatever it is they believe, but murdering everyone else..? [ He shakes his head. ] I'm sorry you're dealing with that.

Me too. It is what it is I suppose. Everything has it's purpose.

Honestly I think they just haven't gotten to the killing their own followers part. I've been there for months and their plan basically boils down to be prepared for the Collapse, and when it happens retreating to these bunkers. But there's only three bunkers for hundreds of people. And apparently we have to stay in them for seven years.

They have enough food for either a few months, or only a dozen people.

The logic doesn't add up.

[He may be brainwashed and half a cultist himself, but even he can see that there's not enough space or food for how many people they have. Joseph isn't going to magically proselytize another bunker into existence. ]

[ Drake is listening carefully as he works, because this seems important -- which means he catches something he isn't sure Pratt meant to let slip. He looks back up, tilting his head curiously. ]

...it sure doesn't add up. But you just said we. Does that mean you were one of them?

[ There's no judgment in his voice, just a gentle wondering why, and what changed. ]

[ He jerks a bit, having not even realized he'd done that. ]

I'm...

[ He hesitates. He's never been a good liar, but telling the truth might be unwise. Though other than Kettara no one has judged him for it yet. Maybe that's a good sign.]

I, well.

Yeah. I guess I am.

[ He doesn't sound happy about it though. ]

[ Drake's thoughts exactly. ]

Am like you still are, after all that you just told me? You don't sound too happy about that, so... why? You don't have to tell me why originally, but why still?

[ He understands how otherwise intelligent people can get sucked into those sort of things, but usually once they realize it's bullshit, they get out before the death starts. What if... ]

Would you be leaving family behind or something?

action; 1/1 after the stampede

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