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

[nonscriptum]

[In classic Nathan Drake style, he conveniently avoids answering the question by posing one of his own. Pratt can't exactly lean on his title of deputy when he pointedly stated he wouldn't be joining the Guard.

Nate groans, because yeah, maybe his phrasing could have made him sound a little less like some kind of psychopath.]

You're pulling the cop thing now? Seriously?

[theweakhavepurpose]

Hey man, I didn't suffer through all the Academy hazing for nothing.

Fine fine. It's not like I'm going to do anything about it.

[He snorts. It's not like his body count makes him feel any better about all this.]

So if the Null invade you can be our one man army and the rest of us can go back to tending our gardens.

[nonscriptum]

And I didn't ask to have my jobs interrupted by people who bankroll their own paramilitary organizations.

[He says a little defensively, feeling caught out. That people with that much power are constantly looking to gain more will never cease to amaze him.

It's an optimistic thought, that he alone might bring down a complex hive mind army.]

I've just- seen a lot of shit. Had to fight a lot of really bad people. It's not exactly something I look forward to.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Does it ever get better? Do you get used to it?

[He means the seen a lot of shit part. Because boy has Pratt seen some shit, and if anything he thinks he's getting worse. Maybe Jacob's conditioning to horrors was wearing off but Pratt is pretty sure he'd have a panic attack seeing a regular corpse at this point much less the flayed ones that Jacob used as chandeliers.]

I don't think anyone looks forward to fighting. It's just a thing that happens sometimes. Or has to happen I guess.

[That's not true, there's people who revel in bloodshed, but they're crazy and not who Pratt is talking about.]

[nonscriptum]

That's...a hard question.

[The sincerity of the Pratt's next comment actually startles him, and Nate takes every second he can to pull his jacket back, tucking the Beretta into his shoulder holster. He isn't certain how qualified he is to answer something like that. When he was younger - fifteen, holding a gun for the first time as a professional killer cornered him - the idea of taking a shot was terrifying.]

How you deal with it improves, I think.

[Now he doesn't spare second glances, doesn't double-take. Rarely hesitates. He squeezes a trigger and takes a life and justifies it because they were trying to take his. Having never been asked how he processes the amount of death he's seen, Nate finds it difficult to articulate.

It is a testament to his genuine desire to provide Pratt with a thoughtful answer that he hesitates around his words, trying to choose them wisely.]

I don't know that you ever get used to it so much as you get desensitized to it? Like wearing blinders. After a certain point, it's just...there.

[theweakhavepurpose]

I guess that makes sense. Conditioned to not even notice anymore.

[He doesn't sound happy about it, but he understands. There's a part of him that wants to be desensitized to all of the trauma, but there's a larger part that doesn't want to normalize what he's seen. Like it's okay that he skinned someone. Just a thing that happened.

But it isn't, and he shouldn't think that it's normal.]

I'm not to that point yet. I dunno if I'll ever get there.

[nonscriptum]

[Conditioning makes it sound uncomfortably clinical, when the reality is that Nate has had to look past the trauma of killing for his own safety. One tends to feel less bad about snapping someone's neck when the someone in question is heavily armed and talking to his buddy about how badly he wants to fill you with lead.]

I'm not saying you should get to that point. Caring about this means you're human.

[Having never questioned his own methods, but rather the stakes involved, Nate knows for a fact he doesn't take any pleasure in taking lives. Adrenaline is a Hell of thing, but it never influences him to blood lust. He'd much rather get in and get out with no one the wiser.]

I've gone into plenty of situations unarmed, no intention of hurting anyone, and sometimes shit just goes sideways. Or I get screwed by someone I trusted. For me, it's just- when it comes down to it, if they're gonna kill me, I either let them, or I don't.

[theweakhavepurpose]

I hope I'm still human.

[But he does wonder sometimes.]

No I understand. You do what you must to survive. We all do. I just wish we didn't have to.

[He did not become a cop to shoot people. That was never his intention.]

[nonscriptum]

Yeah, me too.

[A statement meant to echo all of Pratt's sentiments. He'd much prefer that his jobs veered away from violence, but he also knows how much those jobs contributed to who he is today. Who he became, what his motivations are.

It's a hard line to walk.

The conversation has taken a turn for the miserable, though, and in coming out here it wasn't Nate's intention. He gives Pratt's shoulder a brief clasp and manages a tight smile.]

I've done a lot of stuff I'm not proud of. You look pretty human to me.

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Look at him trying to do something kind of like a smile. His face doesn't really move in that way anymore, all those smiling muscles have probably atrophied from months of disuse.]

Well thanks. Trying to keep it that way.

[That's oddly uplifting to find out that very few people here think he's a complete monster.]

If nothing else it made you a way better shot than me.