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]

I don't either.

[He looks a little like he doesn't do rest in general.]

That's the plan. We're doing it so far, surviving in this place, not going completely insane...

[requiemshark]

Bad habit. But I'm still kicking.

[ Technically he's died a couple times. But those are semantics. ]

Yeah. People've adapted pretty damn well.

[theweakhavepurpose]

What doesn't kill you..

[He's not going to finish the saying. It just seems trite, but he's sure Ephemera gets the idea.]

Amazing what can happen if you feel you have no choice. People get real good at survival, real fast.

[requiemshark]

Something like that. Usually still hurts like hell, though.

[ Like getting shot multiple times or having a building dropped on you. ]

That's war. Or it feels like war, anyway.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Being strong hurts. That's how you get tougher.

[Or so Jacob said, he espouses it out of habit, but he's not sure he believes it fully.]

It's pretty close isn't it? We all act like soliders here. That's probably a good thing.

[requiemshark]

Wouldn't say that. Sometimes you just hurt.

[ Ephemera's seen a lot of pointless hurt in his time. The war was ugly. Aftermath wasn't much better. ]

Probably. Makes things simple.

[theweakhavepurpose]

I'm trying to find the positives here. Suffering for no purpose drives you insane.

[Example A: Deputy Pratt.]

Except we don't have leaders or a purpose. Something to fight for. Some people want to go home. Some want to stay. Some love these so-called gods. Some hate them. We're not united on any front.

[requiemshark]

Maybe don't focus on the suffering, then.

You'd be surprised. The war was like that, too. Me, I'm focusing on the now. Survive today. The rest will come when it comes.

[theweakhavepurpose]

That's the best strategy I've heard so far.

[He won't be able to follow it because he's trying to plan for every conceivable thing that could go wrong, but it's the way he'd want to be if he had a choice in the matter.]

I should try and adopt that. Try.

[requiemshark]

Dunno if I'm the guy you wanna take advice from, but sure.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Well the other pieces of advice I've gotten are to go fuck myself and that I should try more hugs.

So this sounds far more solid.

[requiemshark]

[ Ephemera actually laughs at that. ]

Holy shit. I actually gave good advice.

[theweakhavepurpose]

First time for everything right?

[requiemshark]

Guess so. Damn. My sergeant's probably rolling in her grave. Or laughing her ass off.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Why not both? If it makes you feel any better, back home they're probably laughing their asses off that I even need advice. So you know, you're a little better off here than me.

[requiemshark]

Why's that?

[theweakhavepurpose]

I'm a cop, I'm supposed to have all this shit figured out all the time.

[Be on top of everything. Know exactly what to do. Be an authority figure. He sure doesn't feel like anyone should follow his lead anymore.]

[requiemshark]

Pretty sure nobody's got it figured out all the time. Sorry.

[ Even the people who're supposed to. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

Oh believe me, I know. It's the people back home who aren't convinced.

[requiemshark]

Earth sounds like a trip.

[theweakhavepurpose]

It used to be fine. Quiet. Peaceful.

And it has a hell of a lot more trees than here.

[requiemshark]

Yeah? Actual forests and shit? Haven't seen too many of those.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Hundreds and hundreds of miles of them. Basically the whole state until you get too far to the east, then it's more plains.

[requiemshark]

Damn. That sounds nice. Haven't really spent time in any forests, outside of war zones.

[theweakhavepurpose]

That's the worst time to enjoy a forest. Fighting in them is impossible. The terrain sucks to get a foothold in, there's too many hiding places, sometimes you line up a great shot and the guy you wanted to shoot gets attacked by a bear.

Or at least that's how it is back home for me.