Basic Human Training

[Marissa Ilirran]

February 9th, 2018

Formerly JFK International

Mid Morning

 

It felt good to stretch her fins, to feel the cool water of the Atlantic against her scales. She'd pushed herself just a little too far this last week. She was still young, still too connected to the Ocean to leave it for too long and the urge had been crawling through her like an Addict needing her next fix. It had made her irritable and cranky and that could be deadly if someone managed to push her buttons in the wrong order. She didn't have a lot of buttons as it was. Instead of meeting Alistair at his apartment, She'd asked him to show her where to meet him and then spent the night out in the ocean. Hunting, sleeping, playing with Wave Jumper, though she had to swim out pretty far to play with the Orca. Still, it had done her a world of good, happy as a clam as the humans would say, though why they said that she couldn't figure out. As far as she knew Clams didn't have actual feelings.

 

Now that she was spending more time on land, Mari had invested in a waterproof bag so she could carry a change of clothes and few other essentials around with her. Tended to keep the weird looks people gave her when she walked around in just her bikini in the middle of winter to a minimum. Which would explain why she was currently standing on the deserted airstrip, pulling on a pair of jeans over her red and white swim suit. She figured Alistair was having enough issues adjusting to fatherhood, she didn't need to remind him that she was basically fully grown as far as humans were concerned.

 

Mari was both nervous and excited for today. Alistair had agreed to teach her about the human firearms and possibly help her learn to control her electrogenics. It was really the first thing they were doing together, besides the day Alistair had gone with her to her mother's Apartment for the first time. She pulled on a green sweater, like mother like daughter it would seem, though the sweater had small threads of gold causing it to shimmer when she moved. She ran her gold scaled fingers through her hair, wringing out the salt water before she pulled it all back and secured it with a gold clip to keep it out of the way. She finished the ensemble with a pair of gold flats and slung the bag over her shoulder.

 

Alistair had said he'd commandeered one of the larger hangars, the entire airport felt like a ghost town, despite how long it'd been since the Nevus event. It didn't take long to find the one she wanted, seeing as it was really the only one with the hangar doors open and a familiar jeep parked inside. "Dad?!" She called out, not seeing him right away though the Hangar honestly looked a bit like his apartment did, and if she had to bet, his lab at ARMA.

 

 

[Alistair Greene]

The reason for the airport's still-destitute nature was simple enough - there just weren't many planes flying anymore. Magic and monsters had made the practice of traveling between countries more than a little unsafe, and it had only been recently that people had been getting back to any sort of normalcy. Even with that being the case, the population had been so sharply reduced that it would probably be a century before they climbed back to the highs of the pre-Resonance era, if indeed there ever did. Throw in a handful of groups with the ability to create portals across the ocean, and there were ever fewer reasons to travel by air. Of the three major airports in the area, thanks to a major demonic incursion early on, JFK had come out the worst - the major runways were devastated, enormous craters ruining the once carefully tended surfaces, so restoration efforts had focused elsewhere.

That left other opportunities though, for someone who needed a lot of open space.

Alistair had thought of the idea some time ago, back when he was still with the Order, and turned one of the private airplane hangars into a workshop and the surrounding area into something of a makeshift training area. The craters made for good training, and the tunnels the creatures had dug hadn't been such a terrible thing either. But it was also a place he went to calm himself, spend some time working on something without any pressure, take his mind off things.

That thing, it turned out, was a small Cessna airplane, damaged in the attack, but now mostly rebuilt. He had almost had it finished before his promotion - now he had little time for it and had made even less progress over the last few years. Still, he came down to tinker, or try out the occasional invention.

When Mari arrived though, he had his head in the plane's engine cowling, the telltale sound of a ratcheting wrench echoing in the massive space of the hangar. He started a bit when she called out, and there was a solid metallic THUNK of impact, after which there was the sound of the wrench hitting the floor, and the magus swearing. [alistair]SON of a... dammit...[/alistair] He ducked this time before trying to move out of the way of the cowling panel, rubbing at the back of his head as he winced. [alistair]Hey Mari![/alistair] he called, finally looking up and lifting his free hand in a wave before ducking down to retrieve the wrench. That he tossed on a table, walking out toward the door to meet her. The hangar was divided into a few sections - tables of equipment in various states of repair, a few much more organized sections of tools, and a lot of assorted parts from more heavily broken planes and the like. Magus though he was now, he'd always been a tinkerer, and he probably always would be.

[alistair]Good to see you, kiddo.[/alistair] he said, smiling finally and pulling her into a hug, then letting her back down and motioning around the hangar. [alistair]Welcome, et cetera - I don't spend the time down here that I used to, but I used to collect all the stuff that was too big for the apartment here. Just never got around to fixing all of it. How's the ocean today?[/alistair]
 

[Marissa Ilirran]

Mari's eyes whipped around to face the sound of the metallic thunk that came from the direction of the large plane taking up one side of the Hangar. If she'd been a canine her hackles would most certainly be raised, but the sound of her father's voice, even cursing, was enough to bring her back from the edge. She couldn't help the smile that curled her lips as her father recovered enough to greet her.

"A little cold, but it's what I get for being a tropical species." She teased, knowing full well that it had always been her mother's biggest complaint as well. "Wave Jumper says hello, well, technically it was an image of the sun hitting the water at dawn but it's the general idea. Felt nice to hunt again, I'm not sure I'll understand why the humans gave it up for their stores." She shrugged, not that she hadn't been making use of them as she tested new culinary wonders in the kitchen. Neri hadn't been the greatest cook, probably because she didn't care whether or not her food was still squirming, but Mari seemed to have a knack for it.

The engineer in Mari was having a field day in Alistair's work space, though she had no idea what most of the stuff was for or did, but by the depths was she going to learn it if it killed him. In some ways she found it tiresome that she couldn't just instantly know her father's world by sharing the memories with him, but in other ways she found it satisfying to accomplish something that no other Ondine had ever dreamed of. She'd been reading what she could, but she was realizing it wasn't a substitute for actually getting your hands dirty.

"What do I get to learn first?" She asked eagerly, it was why they were here after all. Whether Mari knew it or not, learning what she could about her world was ingrained in her genes. This stage of her life was meant for her to take in everything she could, so she could later use the information to get what she wanted, or needed. Nerissa would have called it 'knowing your enemy' but Mari's young mind didn't work that way, it hadn't been trained to. "What is that thing?" She asked, motioning to the plane. Of course she'd never seen one actually flying before, they generally didn't go out over the deep oceans due the monsters, like her, living out there.

[Alistair Greene]

[alistair]Pff. Your mom's old complaint - you all swim with orcas in the arctic just fine, I'm pretty sure you're insulated just fine.[/alistair] he teased in reply, then grinned a bit at the mention of the orca. [alistair]Well, tell Wave Jumper I said hello as well, or... whatever the equivalent mental image is. I never exactly got the hang of that.[/alistair] Mostly because he wasn't telepathic, which was of course the joke.

[alistair]And the whole business with not hunting anymore is mostly to free up time for things like... building cities, writing books, science, yada yada. So, that's why, since you asked.[/alistair] He flashed a grin at that, turning to walk back inside and motioning for her to follow. The main power out here had been broken long ago, but there was a series of drums off to the side that Alistair had built some part magic, part mundane battery systems into. Those ran the lights, and they hummed faintly with power Mari would likely be able to sense, if only dimly.

[alistair]Huh... what first... that's a pretty damn good question actually.[/alistair] He paused, considering for a few seconds before she asked about the plane. [alistair]I suppose that answers the question. That's an airplane. You've seen ships, right? The propellers push against the water as they spin.[/alistair] He walked over to the front of the engine and laid his hand against the propeller.

[alistair]Well if you have a much bigger, faster one, you can do something similar with the air. That gives the plane thrust, and allows it to fly. We can go over wing design sometime if you're interested, but that's the short version. The engine isn't too different from a car's, but the parts are a bit more specialized, it's been hard to find the right ones for this thing so I'm having to fabricate a lot of them myself.[/alistair] He motioned to the engine case, then gave a bit of a shrug, crossing his arms and considering for a few moments.

[alistair]And, if you did still want to learn about guns, I happen to have an uncomfortably large number of those things these days. Used to be a hobby, now it's turned into kind of a necessity.[/alistair]

[Marissa Ilirran]

"Technically I didn't." She teased him, scrunching up her nose at him much the same way Neri used to. Her eyes widened as Alistair spoke about flying. With all the incredible things she was capable of, flying was certainly not one of them. "I had no idea that was even possible." she mused, reaching out to run her hand across the surface of the plane wistfully. Whether or not Alistair knew it, he was slowly becoming more and more awesome in his daughter's eyes. There didn't seem to be anything that he couldn't do and he had yet to disappoint her. Of course, didn't all daughters think their fathers were superheroes?

When he spoke about guns, she pried her attention away from the plane and nodded. "Yes please! They seem to be pretty common on land and I want to make sure I'm not useless if I ever need to use one. Mom says my scales will help protect me against the smaller caliber rounds...whatever that means." She said, stepping away from the plane to follow Alistair. Mari held herself with such confidence that it was sometimes easy to forget just how little she actually knew about the world around her. A lot of fights in the animal kingdom were won without actually fighting, if one of the combatants thought they couldn't win against the other. It was really a predator thing that Mari held herself the way she did.

She also never felt ashamed by the things she didn't know. It was simply a fact, she accepted it and either changed it or moved on. Of course, she wasn't aware that she should have felt ashamed about it to begin with. "Mom was teaching me the beginnings of hand to hand and a bit with knives but she didn't exactly have the tools to teach me much else beyond that. Guns don't really like the water after all."

[Alistair Greene]

[alistair]You didn't? Oh heck, it's one of my favorite things. That's why I wanted to get this plane working. I worked on... well much smaller planes before Resonance, the sort that were controlled remotely. This thing's a lot different. But I can fly it, once I'm sure it's ready. Have to be careful about that... it's not like a car, if a car breaks down you just pull over to the side.[/alistair] He gave his daughter a wan smile, then he laughed a little at her comment. It was funny - there were some things from Neri's memory that didn't seem to have made it through.

That, or Neri had just been repeating what Ali had told her once upon a time. It was probably that one.

[alistair]Well, I suppose we can start with that then. Caliber refers to the diameter of the bullet. So she just meant it will protect you against smaller bullets. There's also a difference because some smaller bullets are faster and hit harder, so you have to worry about them, too.[/alistair]

He stopped by a large, boxy object covered in a bright blue tarp. The tarp he pulled off, revealing a large black safe, which he set about opening. [alistair]I don't like to leave guns around unattended... even if they are in a building I set up with a magic security system.[/alistair] he explained, hitting the last digits of the code and turning the handle. There was a heavy THUNK as the bolts retracted, and he swung open the door to reveal a cavity filled with a couple dozen long weapons - rifles and shotguns - and another collection of handguns, all meticulously organized. The far right section was crammed with boxes of ammunition.

[alistair]I call this the 'rainy day' collection.[/alistair] he said with a grin, then he looked to the handguns, considering for a few seconds before he picked one out. After a quick check to see that it was unloaded, he offered it to her. It wasn't one of the smallest, but it wasn't a big gun either, and it was slim, easy to hold and carry. [alistair]This is about your size. Sig Sauer P239. Nine millimeter, not too big a round, but with proper ammo it has good power. Metal frame makes it tough, too.[/alistair]

He let her look it over for a few seconds before he moved to her side, moving her hands until she held it correctly, one hand cupping the other. [alistair]You want to hold it firmly, so it doens't move when you shoot, but not so tightly that you make yourself tense. It's a balance you have to strike. And when someone hands you a pistol like this, you always check the chamber. Like this.[/alistair] He lifted her left hand off the grip, put it on the slide, and helped her pull it back. [alistair]If you look in there, and there's no round, you've nothing to worry about. Gun can't fire without ammunition. Which... is this.[/alistair]

He let her go and turned away, snatching a box of 9mm, and he took one out to toss to her. [alistair]That's a nine millimeter round, or cartridge if you want to be fancy. It has four parts - the copper coated part on top is the bullet, that's the part that actually flies out and does the damage. The brass part is the casing that holds it all together, inside that is the powder charge that makes it work, and if you look on the bottom there's that round silver primer. The primer is what lights the powder. There's a lot of parts to remember in all this, but the basics are pretty simple.[/alistair]

He had gone slower with some people in the past, but... Well Neri had always been a quick learner. And Mari was HIS daughter, too. She'd proven more than once she hadn't escaped the smarts...

[Marissa Ilirran]

Mari was slowly beginning to realize just how ingrained her mother's brain was. So many centuries of constant war and death and she had become a monster. Old habits were hard to break, and Mari was beginning to wonder just how different her life was going to be, the things she would be capable of. Perhaps she could even learn to control her powers like Joce said. When Alistair began talking, Mari's eyes focused on him and never left him. There were so many holes in her vocabulary and any chance she had to fill them in she wasn't about to pass up. As young as she was, her mind was like a sponge, absorbing everything around her. She especially retained the part about worrying about them. Just because she wanted to be different then her mother didn't mean she wasn't going to retain the parts that had kept her mother alive.

She trailed after him as he moved to a large blue tarp, crossing her arms in front of her as she waited for him to do whatever it was he was doing with the large black box. Her eyes narrowed as he spoke as if she knew what the hell he was talking about but she managed to keep from rolling her eyes. She had no word for it, but she figured she'd just call it the big black storage box in her sarcastic voice till he told her. Always worked with Mom.

She gave a low whistle as his 'rainy day' collection was revealed. Of course, she had no idea just how much the Earth had changed, she had never known it before magic made it's resurgence. She had never not known magic. So she wouldn't know how at one point such a collection might have put him on quite a few watch lists. She stared at the gun he offered her a moment, processing everything he said before reaching out to take it. She'd held knives before but this was different. She let her human skin take in the feel of it, the metal that created a weapon powerful enough to harm even her mother. His touch caused her to smile softly as he adjusted her grip until the gun fit almost perfectly in her fingers. She could feel her mana react to his, like recognizing like, but it wasn't overwhelming anymore, just a familiar feeling that always made her smile.

She caught the ammo he tossed to her and held it between her fingertips, tilting her head as she examined it. She looked so much like her mother in that instance. Neri would do the same thing when she was introduced to something new. She listened intently as he explained all the parts to the bullet. "I want to know how it works, the pieces that come together to create the weapon. Show me." She told him, holding out the gun to him. She didn't want to fire it until she knew the how, the why.

[Alistair Greene]

Her request... well, really, in a very Neri-like way, she commanded it. He raised a brow archly, considering waiting for her to say please, but finally he chuckled and took the weapon from her. A different emotion had won out. [alistair]Attagirl.[/alistair] he said, a touch of pride in his voice. Hey, he had never been satisfied until he knew how something worked, either.

The magus motioned for her to follow, and he walked over to one of the emptier work tables, lifting the weapon and pressing the magazine release as he did. The mag slid out and he caught it in his free hand, setting it down. The pistol came apart quickly after that - he pulled back the slide and thumbed down the locking bar, then pushed it through the frame until it came free. Without that bar in place, the slide came forward and off the lower frame, the barrel staying with it.

[alistair]Pistols - at least, semi-automatic pistols like this - have two main parts. There's the lower frame, which has the grip and the trigger and hammer assembly, and also holds the magazine where the ammunition is stored. Then there's the slide. The slide's big job is to hold the barrel, and to move when the gun is fired - that allows it to eject the casing after the bullet has been fired and then return to place.[/alistair] He removed the spring, setting it aside too, and the barrel fell out without the spring to keep tension on it.

Alistair spent the next few minutes pointing out the inner workings of the weapon - the spring on the trigger, how when the trigger was pulled, it either drew back the hammer or released it if the hammer was already back. He showed her the firing pin on the slide, how the hammer would hit it, driving it forward into the primer on the cartridge. He put it back together after that, and once it was, he mimed pulling the trigger and then pulled the slide back himself to show her how the empty brass would fly out before letting it snap back into place to demonstrate the spring.

[alistair]Notice too - each time it fires, it's the explosive that propels the bullet forward, but that explosion also provides the force that makes the slide move. That's why we say that weapons of this type are 'gas operated' - it's the gas produced by the burning gunpowder that makes all this happen. The gunpowder has its own fuel, it's own oxidizing agent - combustion like that needs oxygen to work, if you'd never heard - it's all self contained in the shell casing. So whoever told you guns don't like water wasn't totally correct. A gun like this will work just fine if you submerged it and then pulled it back out to use. Hell, this will fire just fine underwater. There are two problems. One, most parts inside guns are made of metal, specifically steel, so if they get wet and you don't take good care of them, they rust. And two, as I am sure you are aware, water is less kind than air to fast moving objects. Bullets don't travel very far in water, thanks to that.[/alistair]

He handed the weapon back to her then, and set the box of ammunition down on the table. [alistair]Okay. Few rules though, before we load that thing and go outside. One, you always assume when you pick up a gun, that it's loaded and ready to  fire. So every time, you eject the magazine and pull the slide back to check. Different guns have slightly different things you have to do, but that's the general idea - always check the chamber for yourself. Two, don't point a loaded weapon at anything unless you're OK with shooting it. If you take that thing out and aim it, you better be fine with putting a hole in whatever you're pointing at. And last, never, ever put your finger on the trigger until you're ready to shoot. You'd be surprised how many supposed professionals have accidentally shot someone because they left their finger on the trigger and someone bumped into them. You don't want to be that person.[/alistair] He ticked the rules off on his hands, then laughed. [alistair]You know, my dad taught me those when I was about your age. Your actual age. Where I grew up that wasn't so strange.[/alistair]

Once that was done, he showed her how to put rounds into the magazine - just a matter of putting the primer end in first, pressing down, and sliding it back with your thumb - before letting her handle the rest. [alistair]Feel like seeing what it does for real now?[/alistair] he asked, offering her a pair of earphones for protection. [alistair]You're gonna want these. No memory or TV show or story can really prepare you for how loud these things can be. Now remember, this is different than some guns - there's no safety to put on, so you have to be more careful with the trigger. But as long as the hammer is lowered, you have to pull the trigger pretty hard to make it fire. Once that hammer is back, though, it'll go nice and smooth and easy. So you can use the lever on the side like I showed you, that will lower the hammer for you without the gun going off.[/alistair]

[Marissa Ilirran]

Mari smiled as Alistair said such a simple one word phrase that caused an emotion to stir within her. If she'd been born on the homeworld she would have never even known such a feeling. Pride. Pride in herself for pleasing her father. A father she would never have known. She trailed after him as he moved to one of the tables, her gold flecked eyes watching his every movement as he took the gun apart, piece by piece. Her memory would keep track of the pieces and in what order they came apart and she'd be able to do at again herself the next time.

She listened intently as Alistair told her the names for all the pieces, the information filed away for later use. There was a reason the Golds of the Ondine were used as tacticians and engineers, their minds were wired for information, to see the enemies movements three steps ahead and to see all outcomes, but that required knowing the enemy. Which required scouts like the Greens.

As he put the gun back together, Mari tilted her head, remaining silent. She was here to learn, not ask stupid questions. She did arch a brow as he mentioned rules, Ondine never did like rules but she wasn't in a position to protest and once she'd heard them she couldn't say they weren't without reason. "Mom said you never talked about your family much, Obviously I know about Aunt Cass, though mom never knew her without her passenger, but I don't know anything about my grandparents. I'd like to hear about them one day." She said softly, leaning her head on his shoulder for a moment as he loaded the ammo into the magazine.

When he offered her the earphones, she shook her head a moment. "Not yet." She told him, taking the gun into her nimble fingers she dismantled it much the same way he had, though she never hesitated. Nerissa would have, she would have taken a couple of tries to get it right but Mari never faltered. Once it was laid out on the table before her she promptly put it back together again. "Now, I'm ready." She told him, taking the earphones and settling them around her neck. She wasn't going to fight him on  wearing them. Ondine had rather acute senses, it was an animal thing and the last thing she wanted was to harm those senses before she even had a chance to use them.

Her father was the commander of ARMA and a Traitor to the Order. There weren't a lot of people who knew he had a daughter but once the word got around there would be plenty of enemies willing to use her to get to him. She didn't want to make that an easy task. And she didn't want her father to worry about her, she wanted him to be confident in her ability to take care of herself.

[Alistair Greene]

Alistair was still for a moment when she mentioned his family. He'd brought up his dad without thinking about it. But he really hadn't spoken to anyone about it since he'd been to visit Adeline's family and explained it to her. And then Adeline had been taken, and... Well he hadn't ever planned on bringing that up again. But it had just come up. Hard to think about the basics like this, without thinking of those early days when he'd been little.

He let out a slow breath, leaning his cheek against her hair when she put her head to his shoulder. [alistair]I never really talk about them because... Well your aunt Cass is the only one left. I'm from a state called Michigan, it's surrounded by huge lakes on all sides. When Resonance hit... Well those lakes became pretty packed with monsters. The state is still a mess. Not many survivors from the coastal parts, and we lived right on the water.[/alistair]

He was fairly quiet as he told the story, then he shook his head just a bit and looked down to her, smiling faintly. [alistair]Obviously I don't hold a grudge against the entire water-monster community. But it's not... the sort of history I bring up a whole lot. But they're your family too, so. You should know at least. I'll tell you some better stories one of these days. It's been a while since I told any.[/alistair]

He let her take the gun and dismantle it then, chuckling. [alistair]I was going to have you do it after - but we'll get to that. Points for being thorough.[/alistair] He was impressed at least by how well she did it from memory... he wondered just how good she was at that. There was clearly an aptitude, he expected that, but it was hard to peg how she was going to develop. Actually, he wondered if even Neri would know. Mage-engineer fathers couldn't have been that common on their old homeworld, even. He waited for her to put the headphones on, then raised his voice a bit so she could still hear.

[alistair]We'll get you used to the un-dampened sound later, but there's no need to subject yourself to too much noise right off the bat.[/alistair] He led her outside, carrying the box of ammo, to where he had a few targets set up against a marrive berm of rock and dirt - it was odd, almost unnatural, being the product of an earth-magus' spells. Definitely did the trick, though.

[alistair]We'll start nice and easy. Grip with both hands like I showed you, left over right... load the magazine and pull back the slide. Always release the slide fully, let it snap, don't ease it back down - you want the full power of the spring to make sure the round chambers properly. And like I said, keep your finger off the trigger while you do this.[/alistair] He let her get the weapon ready, making sure she was facing the target. [alistair]Basic stance - feet about shoulder width apart. You can drop one foot back slightly and bend that elbow if it makes you more comfortable, that tends to be how I shoot.[/alistair]

[alistair]Once you have your stance, lift the weapon, sight down the top. You want to find what they call your sight picture - the post on the end of the barrel lined up between the two at the rear, the dots in a straight line as you look at them. The center dot should cover up the center of the target you want to shoot. Get comfortable holding the weapon on target - you want to exhale, stop your breath, then fire during that hold. Don't hold your breath too long - your hands will start to shake. Or...[/alistair] He paused, grinning slightly. [alistair]I suppose I can't speak for Ondine biology. Human hands do. Then you squeeze the trigger. Don't pull - you want to apply pressure to the grip and the trigger at the same time, so you don't pull the barrel off-target. You'll feel it catch right before its ready to fire. You'll learn to anticipate that, find it before you shoot so you just need to break that tension. Squeeze until you feel the stop, check your aim, then finish through. [/alistair] Of course, she'd need to learn how to handle recoil, but... well he couldn't talk through EVERYTHING. She'd have to learn some things for herself.

[Marissa Ilirran]

Life had a funny way of biting you in the ass, Mari couldn't help but think about how weird it was that her father's family met their end and then his new family was basically the very things that had taken his parents. She wasn't sure how to feel about that, she felt almost like she should apologize but she knew that wasn't what he wanted to hear. It wasn't her fault and it wasn't her mother's fault. Whatever monsters he was talking about they were a completely different species. Mari made a mental note to clean out those lakes someday, round up her sisters and have a couple of days of old fashioned Ondine fun.

She wasn't even sure what to say to him, dealing with emotions like this was new to her. Loss wasn't something she had experienced in her short life. So instead she just gave him a soft smile and kissed him on the cheek. "Whenever you're ready dad." She told him.

Trailing after him, she kept the gun pointed towards the ground and her finger off the trigger. Her father had been very serious when he'd told her the rules and she wasn't about to mess it up now. She followed his directions as he spoke, moving and aligned her body until she was positioned just right. Her sight was better then a human's, so finding the posts he was talking about wasn't difficult, nor was seeing the target she was aiming at. She took in a couple of slow stead breaths before she held one. She could hold her breath much longer then a human, her body capable of using the oxygen at a slower rate. Her mom had taught her how to shoot with a bow, the older styled weapons had been Neri's fortè though she hadn't had a lot of time to teach Mari. Once Mari found the right spot, she squeezed the trigger, she locked the elbow of the arm that was out straight, just like she would if she'd been shooting a bow to keep her aim from drifting.

Of course, a bow didn't have recoil like a gun did so when she followed through and the gun went off...Mari let out a rather girly yelp of surprise and then her lips curled into smile. She'd hit the target at least, though it wasn't the center, she was off a few inches but for her first time it wasn't bad. "Oh depths, that was....I don't have the words for it." She let out a slow breath as her mind went over what had happened, and not just the how or the why of it, but the repercussions that pulling that trigger could have.

Mari had killed, but never anything with a higher sense of intelligence then the mindless monsters in the ocean who ate and slept only to wake up and eat again. With a weapon like this...taking a life became as easy as blinking. There was a moment of panic as she stared at the gun. She knew her mother had killed, she'd even killed someone else instead of Alistair though Mari was well aware that he didn't know that. But Mari had never truly killed, she knew the instincts were there and that had always frightened her. She shook it off, she'd do what she'd have to, and she'd swim that river when she came to it.

"Again, almost won't save my life." She stated, pulling the slide back to reload and taking her aim again.

[Alistair Greene]

Alistair smiled at the kiss, giving her a one-armed hug before he let her go outside and get situated with the weapon. [alistair]I'll talk to Cass about it. I'm sure she'll have stories too.[/alistair] Not that they - and especially she - had always gotten along with their parents, but they hadn't been bad people. Still, the wounds would probably never heal entirely, no matter how long it went. Alistair had a few like that.

When she finally fired, and yelped at the recoil, Alistair couldn't help but grin, laughing quietly at her surprise. He'd warned her, sort of, but... Well there was really no warning someone about a gun's recoil. It was just one of those things you had to experience.

[alistair]It's a bit of a charge, right? Startling, but I always enjoyed it... Hell, that's one of the reasons I lived through the first few months after Resonance. I got my hands on a gun and I knew how to use it.[/alistair] He wasn't the predator she and the other Ondine were... but he wondered if Mari knew that her father's hands weren't exactly clean, either. Alistair might not have been proud of it, but, well he'd killed more than a few. It had been necessary, what seemed at the time the right or even only thing to do, but that didn't necessarily change facts. Still... that was a pain you could deaden, over time.

[alistair]Well, take it easy with that, grasshopper.[/alistair] he said, chuckling again at her comment. [alistair]That's actually damn good for a first try. But this is a pistol you're shooting - even at about twenty feet where we are now, you usually train just to be able to get on target. So long as you can do that, you can hit a person in the chest, and that's usually all you need to do. Pistols have short barrels, the single grip makes it hard to handle the recoil... they're not really built for pinpoint accuracy. You just want to make sure that, when you draw, you can reliably hit someone in the vitals.[/alistair]

He reached into his jacket and pulled out his .45, then leveled it at one of the targets to the right of the one she'd shot at, and fired three times in quick succession, only taking enough time to recover from the recoil between shots. His pistol was, of course, considerably louder than the 9mm he'd given her to practice with, but his shots all struck near the center, in a ring with a radius of a little under 3". [alistair]You can work on firing shots quicker later.[/alistair] he added. [alistair]But don't get hung up on the bullseye. You don't want to get frustrated and tense up. And don't try to tense against the recoil, either - you'll end up shooting low every time. I know how strong you are, but that's not really an advantage here - you don't want to fight the gun.[/alistair]

[alistair]Remember it's not a competition: your only goal is to hit the person somewhere they won't recover from. The heart isn't a small organ, you so much as nick it and they're dead in twenty seconds. Doesn't matter where you hit it.[/alistair]

[Marissa Ilirran]

"What was it like...before?" Marissa asked him. She'd never known the world before the Resonance, never known the sky without the Nevus. Her mother had told her small tidbits in passing that Mari had pieced together but even Neri's knowledge was secondhand. Earth had been a world without magic, an alien concept to Mari. Magic was a part of her DNA, without it she'd probably wouldn't even exist, how could anyone survive without it?

At his words about not getting it perfect, Mari took some of the mental weight she always put on herself away. It was becoming more and more obvious that Mari's personality was very detail oriented, she liked to have everything perfect and if she was going to do something it wasn't good enough to just be alright, she needed to master it or what was the point? Still, his words made sense, explaining the science of it she hadn't yet been able to figure out for herself. She nodded to his words, watching him shoot his own gun and only wincing slightly as the deafening blast rang out. She was very grateful for the protection of the earphones he'd given her. An Ondine's hearing was better then a human's, and even with their protection the sound was still very loud.

"I understand." She told him, pushing her mind to focus instead of thinking about how frail a human was. Stepping into her stance once more, Mari took a few minutes to practice, getting a feel for the way the gun felt in her grip, the way it moved when she squeezed the trigger. He was right, she didn't get it perfect but now that didn't bother her. It was probably a good thing that he'd told her before she got angry, her abilities were still tied closely to her emotions and when angered her Electrogenics seemed to go a little haywire. Wouldn't be good to be holding explosives at that point.

When she ran out of bullets and the gun would no longer fire she frowned slightly and then chuckled to herself. "Suppose that means I should be done." she said, lifting the earphones off her head and settling them back around her neck once more. guns weren't the only thing she'd come out here to learn though. "Wanna try helping me learn to control my abilities? I'd like to stop frying everything when I get nervous." She admitted, for an Ondine to admit a weakness it was a powerful thing but Mari was beginning to see past the pride her species seemed to be born with.

[Cassandra Greene]

JFK International was once a place that consistently swarmed with people. When leaving for Italy this was where Cassandra had departed from and would've been her arrival to had everything not went screwy in the world. Now it resembled nothing of its former glory. Parking the standard ARMA vehicle, she couldn't help wondering if her life post-Resonance might have been different. Lately that was a thought often on her mind; not being in the best place making it difficult to avoid wondering such thoughts. Pushing that aside to put on her game face she locked the door then headed off to find Alistair — the reason she had come here. Practice at the former JFK location wasn't unusual. She trained here regularly to keep furthering her skills and abilities; sometimes with others, sometimes on her own. These days she was out here a lot more on her own.

Today Alistair had asked her to meet him, but didn't specify the reason. Figuring that the plan was to train, she'd wore a loose t-shirt and yoga pants under her warm coat. Brown, ratty Uggs crunched toward the modified hangar where her brother was likely working on his Cessna. Or so Cassandra thought until hearing the sound of gun shots. Strolling through the hangar, grabbing a pair of headphones and slipping them over her loose brown hair, she carefully made her way toward the. . . two figures. One easy recognized as her brother, but the petite blonde wasn't until she drew closer — Marissa. That she was an Aunt to a young woman who physically looked close in age, though wasn't anywhere near, still threw her for a loop. It was something that'd take a little to get used to though might've gone quicker if not for the things on her mind.

 

[cassg]Well, she's got that Greene skill with firearms. Dad would be proud.[/cassg]

 

Catching the tail end of Marrisa's words, she tossed Alistair a smile while standing off to the side until they decided if the shooting would continue. Marrisa was a treat and watching Alistair be a Father to her was sweet. Sliding off her headphones while they did so to hear easier.

[Alistair Greene]

Alistair considered the question for a few seconds. [alistair]Depends on where you lived, I guess. Here? There was a lot less rubble. Lot more people. The Internet worked better, it was bigger, everything seemed bigger - but you could get anywhere in the world if you wanted to, just needed a plane ticket. We had a lot of problems but most of them were long term... everything was settled down, there was an easier routine. A lot easier not to get killed. Most of the time I went to work for eight hours, went out to dinner, and went home. And at no point did anyone try to kill me. I suppose in a lot of ways though, things weren't as different... people being people, and all that.[/alistair] He shrugged slightly. [alistair]Things were still complicated, but it didn't seem that way. It was all familiar. I think for a lot of people, we still haven't gotten back to familiar, yet.[/alistair]

He watched her shoot the rest of the magazine, but at her comment he laughed, tossing her another magazine. [alistair]Woah now, Padawan. Just because you can put shots on paper doesn't mean you've mastered the skill. I was just warning you not to let perfect be the enemy of 'good enough', I know how your mom is. Your groupings are still a mess, and it'll be a while before you get the muscle memory down. And after that, we need to work on your snap-firing. You're not going to get to take a stable Weaver stance and take your time to aim most of the time. You need to be able to hit that target every time, no matter what's happening or how little time you have, if you want to really be able to use that thing.[/alistair] She'd shot pretty well for a beginner, but if she was going to use one for self defense... well there were plenty of other things to learn, and practice was going to be crucial. Besides - 'for a beginner' wasn't always going to be a life saver.

[alistair]I've got a few boxes of ammo here. Once you've gone through a couple hundred rounds, we'll take a break and talk electricity.[/alistair] he promised.

He glanced to the side as Cass walked out into the area, lifting his hand in a wave as he smiled. [alistair]Oh, she seems like she does alright for herself. Kinda cocky though... not sure where she got that from. How's it going, sis?[/alistair] His tone made it clear he was teasing - and that he had a pretty good idea where from. Then again, that part should have been obvious.

[Marissa Ilirran]

At the sound of another voice, Mari turned her strange gold flecked eyes in it's direction. When her gaze fell on Cass, her lips curled into a delighted smile. She hadn't truly had a chance to get to know her Aunt, but seeing as Cass was the only one she'd ever get the chance to know, she wasn't about to pass it up. When she mentioned that her grandfather would be proud, she couldn't help the grin that brightened her face.

She caught the magazine he tossed to her with one hand, ejecting the old one just as he'd shown her and sliding the new one into place. Mari listened to Alistair as he explained all the things she needed to perfect, in a sense, he was giving her a task to complete. When he teased her in his comment to Cass she wrinkled her nose at him.

Retaking her stance, Mari did as she was told. This was going to be one of the skills she may need to use to save either herself or someone she loved. Her mother had been a warrior and those genes flowed through her, but so did her father's and that could make her more then a warrior. Mari could be a weapon. Thankfully, she didn't have any dreams that were that big.

All she wanted right now was family, she carried her sisters with her but she didn't have that luxury with her father, or with Cass. Mari didn't want the same fate as her mother, driven by instinct and need. She was going to control her destiny, she had to.

She lost track of the shots she took, falling into a rhythm as she carefully went over everything Alistair had told her and putting it to use. She also took what she'd gained from watching him. He hadn't shot very many but it had been all Mari needed. Her brain was like a sponge, pun intended, soaking up everything around her. But she had her mother's voice in her head. 'You don't have to be a monster like me Mari, you can be so much more.'

[Cassandra Greene]

The conversation between Alistair and Marissa was hauntingly familiar; nostalgia of times past rearing up to soften the smile on her lips just a little to make it less forced. While life hadn't been perfect by any means those nostalgic lenses made her miss a time when she knew the world. Though she couldn't say that even then it had always made sense. In that world, Marissa wouldn't have existed and at the start of this world her parents had died. It was sad that they wouldn't get the chance to meet each other. She knew they would've loved Alistair's daughter.

Giving Marissa an encouraging look, she moved around to the other side to stand near her brother.

 

[cassg]Not a clue where she gets that attitude.[/cassg] Nudging his side with her shoulder, she laughed and watched the target where Marissa fired. [cassg]You teach her all the good spots to hit?[/cassg]

 

Cassandra preferred purely non-lethal shots, but there were occasions where that wasn't an option. In most cases she just used her magic. She'd heard Alistair's question, but was hesitant on how to answer. How were things? She didn't quite know how to respond given the way she'd been feeling since. . . well, since that happened. Clearing her throat, she gave a shrug and smiled at him.

 

[cassg]They're alright. Been wearing myself out practicing some new moves with my magic, but otherwise the normal routine. How about you? Been spending a lot of time with Marissa?[/cassg]

 

Lately it seemed like she didn't see her brother as much as she should. Part of that was intentional as she worked on building up her walls. Of course, he likely knew that to some extent. The other part was more to do with work keeping them busy especially after the terrorist attack last month.

[Alistair Greene]

((I'm so sorry, I was positive one of you still had to post here so I didn't even look until today...))

Alistair grinned a bit as Mari went back to shooting. Clearly she meant to be a perfectionist at it. There wasn't really a way other than to keep practicing... he had plenty of ammo at least. She'd need a good bit before she got good enough at it to be able to fall into a rhythm instinctively. He still shot a few boxes every now and then to keep his own skills sharp, in those lulls where he hadn't had anyone trying to kill him for a few weeks at a time.

He chuckled at Cass' comment, rocking to the side slightly with her nudge, then putting an arm around her shoulders to give a squeeze. [alistair]Me either. And no, we're just working on hitting what she's aiming at to start with. That's the hard part, obviously. Plus, best to just stick with center mass for your first few engagements, right?[/alistair] Cass had, of course, been in more than her share of scrapes since Resonance hit.

[alistair]Oh, you know how my schedule goes. Periods of crushingly boring paperwork punctuated with moments of sheer screaming terror.[/alistair] he quipped, giving a cheeky smile before he let his hand fall. Mari had finished another magazine, so he walked back over to the little table next to her.

[alistair]If you want to refill an empty magazine, you need to put the back of the round in first, then push down and back.[/alistair] he said, showing her by reloading one before leaving her to the others. [alistair]You can probably take a break here though. I've got some stuff for lunch in the fridge, if you two are hungry?[/alistair]