[PRP] Home on the (Shooting) Range [Shun/Fox]

[demon_pachabel]

Month 9, day 23.

Fox had still not turned to alcoholism to the great joy of her overly worried mother. Certainly, nobody had needled at the wound in the back of her mind, but it was still there. There, hidden under a thick layer of optimism fueled by coffee, her cat, and making sure Waffle and Habanero were taken out on walks at least twice a day. She was good at the desk. People apparently liked her when they walked in with whatever problem it was they were having that day – and people always had a lot of problems. That’s why there were a million forms in different colors that Fox made sure got shuffled to the correct departments. But sitting behind the desk didn’t really help in the way it was meant to.

That’s what Dr. Scully had said.

‘How many times have you shot your gun since the incident?’ Less often than I clean it. Sometimes she would stand in front of the mirror at home with that gun in her hand, the clip out on her bed and looking down the barrel. Not in a death wish way, but to remind herself what it looked like to have it pointed at her. But it didn’t instill that same chill. Every time, she knew she was safe and it was the one thing that she couldn’t replicate.

Still, her therapist was right. She hadn’t really pulled the trigger on that gun in months. She’d practiced up a little bit once she’d been in Ashdown, simply to remind herself she was capable of it, but once the hiring was complete….nothing. Nothing but the slight chill that went down her shoulders whenever she held it. How was she supposed to rise to the task if she just allowed herself to rust over?

Bento was very disappointed to find her morning cuddle session had been interrupted half an hour early that day. The curly feline meowed in disappointment and despair as she was set on the bed after having every single claw that desperately held on for dear love pried out of Fox’s shoulder. She followed after Fox, meowing, and meowing, and meowing all the way to the front door where she finally at least earned a rub between her eyes along the bridge of her nose. “Okay little lady. The house is yours until I get back. I’ll see you soon, sweetie,” Fox bid, kissing the feline on the top of her head (and nearly getting a cat up the shoulder again) before she turned off the lights and was off.

After checking the lock 4 times to be sure her precious cargo (see: Bento) would not be stolen.

The walk from her apartment to the station wasn’t bad – at least while the weather was decent. She’d eventually have to finish pulling stuff out of her car so she could drive it into work once fall came again. Still, she bypassed her usual coffee stop that morning (sorry Revolver! Six shots of espresso would make her far too jittery to shoot in a straight line!) and had enough time to barely shove a bagel in her face before she’d gotten to the range down the street from the station.

The check in to use the range was a pretty standard procedure. Yes here’s my ID, hello yes, this is my gun, yes I do have my required safety gear, no I don’t want to try one of the guns you have on hand, I have my own ammo, yes you’re free to hold onto that until I am done so I can’t just walk off without paying you, thank you, thank you, yes I will have a good time.

Maybe.

Fox carefully adjusted her eye and ear protection in the silent chamber between civilization and the deafening range, releasing the clip of her gun and making sure everything looked clean. It always looked clean. She was meticulous about it.

Once she was sure her gear was clean, inside she went, gently setting her bag at the lane of her choice and acquainting herself with the controls for the targets. She set it at a mid range, then sighed deeply. Ok. She could pull the trigger. It was fine.

Nobody there to judge her.

Blade Kuroda

I am so sorry that turned into a novel. :V :V :V

 

[Blade Kuroda]

It was just another day. By now, the area where his left eye was had pretty much healed up, but it being less tender wasn't that much of a positive for Shun. It didn't change the fact that he was forever blind in that eye. Even if he had somehow managed to work something out in Other Ashdown, it wouldn't help him out for normal day to day life.

His accuracy used to be good. Now? Now, he had to retrain himself. Even if he had gotten more deskwork in general ever since becoming Detective Lt, he didn't want to be stuck with that forever because of his injury. s**t happens, even in quiet towns like Ashdown. It just doesn't happen as often.

So he made his way to the range and did the usual check in.

Once that whole process was done, he looked on through the lanes. One of the young officers was here, but he didn't think too much of it. He walked past and picked a spot a couple spaces away from where she was getting set up.

Demon_Pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Fox held the gun in her hands, testing and retesting the hold on it repeatedly. By the book. She knew where it would push against her hand, into calluses made from the same practice back when she'd been in the academy. Calluses trying to wear away now from a lack of use. It just didn't feel natural anymore. Was it ever supposed to?

Once she was sure the weapon was not going to blow up in her face if she fired it, she carefully took stance, raised her arms and fired once. The trigger felt heavier than before - though it had always taken a little more effort to pull than she'd ever imagined - but the follow up response was immediate. A hole ripped through the target, much farther away than she'd wanted it to.

After making sure the casing had safely ejected from the gun, she fired again. This one seemed even farther away. She knew she was better than this. A deep breath, she fired again. It ripped through the second most inner circle on the chest of the target. Better. She'd focus on there for now.

Her aim didn't exactly improve as she went through the rest of the clip, ejecting it to load again. It was in this time she glanced over to Shun's target, noting for the first time that one of her superiors was also in the range. She hadn't exactly been privy to the knowledge of his injury (outside of the fact there was one), and it made her interest in his target more noted. Part of her also wanted into his head.

Blade Kuroda

She peekin'

 

[Blade Kuroda]

It was all a very calculated practice. He had done this a thousand times before. Shun focused on his target while staring down the sights of his handgun and fired several times, emptying his clip onto the target. A majority of his shots ended up missing. A few grazed against the actual body of the target, and one was an okay hit.

He sighed heavily as he examined this. That hardly acceptable. It would have been far worse with a moving target as well. He cursed under his breath while he went on to get things set up for the next round. The pause in gunfire from the other lane didn't really catch his attention, as he figured she was doing more or less the same with the whole swapping out targets and reloading and whatnot.

Demon_Pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Oof. That was rough. Fox had always thought aiming with one eye was easier, but based on how well Shun had done, she was ready to amend her opinion. Though now she wondered - had it been his dominant eye? If he was trying to relearn that sort of aiming, it would have been difficult. She hadn't really interacted with many of her fellow officers (outside of her exuberant coffee runs, deliveries of various papers, and other fun shenanigans of the 'taking my work seriously but WITH GUSTO' variety), so she wasn't sure how he would have taken her feedback.

Setting the clipless gun and the clip down on the table, she moved from her lane to stand behind Shun's shoulder, eyeing the target. "May I watch for a minute?" she asked, louder than usual because of the protective ear gear (because a nice echo-y room with loud noises was a sure way to ******** up your hearing). She would have easily backed down if requested, but she had a thought and wanted to see how he was shooting first.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun reloaded his gun and got the next target up. He paused as heard the younger officer speak up from behind him, he glanced over his right shoulder briefly before grunting out, "Not like I can stop you."

Shrugging, he set the target out and got into position. While he didn't really want to, he took a little extra time to aim as he began to fire. His shots were doing better this time around, but he didn't like the extra time he was taking to ensure his aim. If it came down to a heated moment, he wouldn't necessarily have that time.

Just before the final shot, his vision shifted. It was enough of a distraction to cause his aim to go wide. And there was the other issue. Now and then, he'd see flickers of outlines and stuff. It was always brief but it was incredibly distracting whenever it happened.

Demon_Pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Just saying no would," Fox pointed out, but leaned back, watching with some curiosity. Not about his skill level, but just a thought she was having. For the first few shots, she thought nothing of it, just nodding quietly as she observed. It was the last shot that startled Fox. The sudden change in aim was definitely not a purposeful thing and for a minute she stared at Shun's back, debating asking about it.

She decided against it. Wasn't any of her business anyways.

In fact, Fox had considered making a suggestion, decided it wasn't her place and moved from where she'd set up to watch. There was a certain extra purpose in her step as she took her own gun back up, checking the sights on the top, and then using them as her guide point for her own aiming. She'd have to test her own theory to see if it was on point before she tried to give any advice.

Well.

That seemed to work OK, then. At least it was the steadiest she'd ever actually fired the gun in the last few months. Perhaps she was going about her 'reasons to get better at shooting' a little wrong.

[6 = Look at that accuracy you did it, 3-5 = That was OK, 1-2 = Why.
Going off a Glock magazine since Glocks are standard police issue and hold 17 bullets.]

xxxxBlade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun needed to figure out what was going on with his vision. He had done some research, and found nothing about any sort of 'phantom vision' like how one might experience phantom pain. More likely than not... it was magical ******** that was messing with him.

The officer that was at the range had gone back to her own lane to continue. He cast a quick glance over, and it seemed that she wasn't doing too poorly. If he recalled correctly, she was one of the newer officers at Ashdown Police Department. At least that meant that his other self probably didn't have too many interactions with her that he wasn't aware of. Not that he expected to have that many with most of the others in the first place.

He reloaded and continued to fire away, once again taking his time to focus. The detective was going to have to work his way back up to where he had been before losing his eye.

He could have done worse. But he knew he definitely could have done better as well.

Demon_Pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Shoot to feel the gun in your hand.

She didn't shoot from experience, she shot like someone who was still fresh off the assembly line of learning how to did. Sure it was great for standing still and hoping you had time to aim, but in a similar vein of thought to Shun - she wasn't always going to have that time. Even if she did.....time gave her time to freeze as well.

Funny how an empty lane and a blank target gave her time to think. Here she had the clear head needed to target carefully and not worry about being fired back upon. Oh. She shouldn't have thought about that. Her brows knitted together and as she fired the last round from the new magazine, it hit the paper, but missed the body on the paper. She cleared the chamber and set the Glock down thoughtfully.

I can shoot a gun. I can hit a target. These were facts. She wasn't a bad shot. That wasn't the problem. That wasn't why Kasey Davis was in a wheelchair and she got a scathing email once a week from his angry wife. A firing range wasn't going to fix what was wrong with her.

Fox shook her head. She'd talk herself out of trying anything with that line of thought. She quietly reloaded the magazine and again looked to Shun's target to see how he was doing. It didn't seem like he was doing too poorly at least. But she'd also never seen him before what had happened. Was he here shooting out of frustration too? Possibly.

Sliding the magazine back in, she finally brought her first sad paper target up to change it out. It had taken her a little longer than she would have liked to strike it consistently. So rusty. At least she knew as she changed them out.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

With a sigh, he worked on getting another clip ready, as he stared at his handiwork with the target. To him, it really wasn't passable.

Lightly, he touched the patch over his left eye. It was dragging him down right now for certain. And it arguably couldn't have come at a worse time. There was more magic in this world, which made things potentially more dangerous. And then there was all the bullshit revolving the cycles and doing something about the cage for real and Pax and...

There was just a lot. He couldn't let it slow him down for long.

Twitching slightly at the thought, he rolled his shoulders and took position once more. He didn't allot himself much time to aim. And his accuracy did take a hit. He let out a frustrated grunt as he stared at the little holes in the paper.

Demon_Pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

They talked only slightly more than the Broodstation.

While Fox couldn't hear him, she could see Shun's frustration. She'd been there. She was almost exactly currently there, though from a different fall. It wasn't that they were in the same mire, but they both were. Fox looked at her own target and fired twice. The jolt went up her arms and she was somewhat losing the feeling in her fingers from the shock.

Still, she could only be her own cheerleader for long and after a moment she leaned back: "You're gonna get better! I promise it does get better!" There. Now she'd had a chance to be someone else's cheerleader for a few seconds

She at least knew two things from this practice: First she was going to be seeing less of her favorite morning fix in lieu of target practice, and second of all.....if the concrete of the building hadn't been so thick she'd have seen if her cell phone could look up a clay target range. That would probably be a county over, though.

Maybe she'd see if her silent companion over there would be interested in something like that if she ran into him ever again. Haha. She wouldn't put too much thought into it.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Hearing the young woman again, Shun just sort of paused and slowly looked over in her direction. That had been... somewhat unexpected. He wasn't really sure how to feel about it. While yes... she had good intentions in trying to cheer him on as he was trying to recover from the incident, it wasn't as helpful as she might have hoped. He didn't like that others felt the need to cheer him on. It made him feel all the more inadequate.

"Thanks," was all he said in response, gritting his teeth a little at the thought.

Little did she know, this wasn't the first time his career was looking a little shakey. He recalled hearing that she had some sort of incident in Boston, but he had doubts it was anything like what had made him leave the NYPD. Bits and pieces of him was still a little bitter about that.

"I merely need to ... keep at it," he added after a moment of silence.

Demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

He...didn't seem to take that well. Which was the opposite of what she wanted, but Fox did her best to shrug that moment of woe off. She didn't see him as any less capable, simply in a place she had been before. Somewhere she had been not so long ago.

But those were different mires.

She nodded as she reloaded her gun. "We both do," Fox agreed, counting her remaining bullets. She probably needed to stop after she went through the next clip if she didn't want to have to go buy some more. It wasn't wise to spend all of your ammo on practice.

Fox resumed her silence as she began to fire into her target. If she judged herself, her aim wasn't any better now than it had been when she'd entered. Yet the gun felt more comfortably in her hand. Maybe that was the best first step.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Letting out a breath, Shun looked at his ammo. He supposed he had fired off enough rounds today. He supposed he could go back to his apartment and throw darts and hopefully not put any new holes into his wall. It wasn't the same as firing a gun by any means, but he still considered it to be a part of his adjustment process.

Perhaps he should try going to a paintball course at some point...

Again, it wasn't the same, but it was something. It may force him to be more mindful of his left. Something that Jeremiah was working with him on already, but more practice was still good.

It was a thought.

And so he began to pack up his things, pausing for a moment to look at his target papers. A lot of work was to be had.

Demon_Pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

She finished off her last magazine she'd allowed herself for target practice. Comparing the two sheets of paper she'd put up, Fox confirmed for herself: She was a really rusty. Looked like there would be daily target practice for a while, if only to boost her confidence.

Fox left the two sheets across the table as she began pulling apart her Glock, fishing a cleaning kit out of her bag. It was at least something she was good at, making sure there was no lingering powder, making sure everything was still oiled. If something failed, it wouldn't be her weapon.

Only once she was pleased with the upkeep, she slid the magazine back in and the gun was reholstered. Hopefully to not come up again until the next day in this place. Then everything went back into the bag.

After a minute of considering, Fox also folded up the targets and put them into her bag. Those would go home with her. Those would be her baseline to grow from.

Blade Kuroda

I foresee more silent target practice with these two in the future lmao