fandomtownies | Atlas Shooting Range, Thursday afternoon.

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Atlas Shooting Range, Thursday afternoon.

Seivarden felt she had spent far too much money on a gun that was probably worse than anything she'd ever have to use in her own universe, but she did need one. Things could invade, and besides, going to the shooting range was a good way to deal with boredom and frustration.

And Seivarden actually trusted Rosa to pick a good gun for her. That might be a mistake, considering the name on her passport, but she guessed Rosa found guns too important to bother annoying her by picking a bad one. They had gone to the mainland, bought guns, and what better way to spend an afternoon than shooting things. Targets. Just targets.

"So," she said. "You know I'm going to say this doesn't measure up to what I'm used ot, aren't you?"

[For the one mentioned. Open shooting range though, if you think you can put up with them.]

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"Yup," said Rosa, emphatically, as she was inspecting her own very closely, again, as if she'd half-expected something to have gone wrong with it since she'd picked it out, making sure her guy didn't try to bait-and-switch her or anything like that with an inferior product, because she would not put it past anyone, much less anyone she ever went to for weapons outside of Blackstone.

And honestly, she was a little surprised Seivarden hadn't said anything like that until then. Kind of a little impressed, actually, which was dumb, because that shouldn't be something to be impressed about.

"And I'll just point out that I'm sure you'll have plenty of luck getting some sort of fancy-ass space gun around here for the price you were about to get on that, and you know what else?"

"No?" Seivarden said, examining her own gun.

"This'll still kill 'em just as dead," Rosa concluded with probably way too much eagerness in her smirk there. And, with the new gun loaded, she turned her focus entirely onto the target waiting for her at the other end of the range, firing off a few steady shots. Good shots, anyone would have to agree with that, but she looked a little displeased as she frowned at the holes she'd made. Made a few little adjustments to her stance, the position of her arm, the hard she pulled the trigger, and was rewarded with the next shot being clean between the eyes.

"Now that's better."

"Not if you have the right kind of armour," Seivarden replied with a smirk of her own.

Granted, Radchaai guns couldn't penetrate Radchaai military armour either, but Rosa didn't know that.

"I'm not going to complain though," she added while leading her own gun, ignoring that she already had complained.

She looked up, glancing at Rosa's target. "Not bad."

Not bad. Rosa snorted, rolling her eyes, and decided not smirking.

"I would say I'd like to see you do better," she said, "but I know you'll just chalk it up to not being more familiar with this kind of gun. But come on," she quirked up her chin with the challenge, "let's see you try to do better, anyway."

"I wouldn't," Seivarden said, which was true at least when it came to her intention. It was a rather obvious excuse.

She aimed and fired, and although she was good, she was unfamiliar with the gun, and she hadn't practiced enough lately. Reloading, she muttered a few Radchaai curses under her breath.

"Don't look smug." She wasn't even looking at Rosa.

"I always look smug," said Rosa. She knew what her face looked like. "That wasn't...terrible," she offered. "You're probably just warming up."

And if she thought Rosa looked smug before, just wait until she got a hold of how she looked as she added, "I hope," before taking two simple, measured shots, clipping her target on one shoulder, then the other.

Not wanting to come across as a sore loser, Seivarden didn't reply, and instead fired two shots of her own. They were better, but not quite matching Rosa's.

"I wish I could show you some of the stuff I used to have. Radchaai military weapons and armour is pretty impressive even in my universe."

Rosa would like it. And probably nothing else of Radchaai culture.

"Sounds like it was pretty dumb of you to get rid of it in the first place," Rosa said, and here she didn't even know the half of it. She narrowed her eyes at target for a moment before going for a kneecap. "I'd definitely be curious."

"I was short on cash," Seivarden muttered. "It wasn't like I could access my funds after a thousand years in a suspension pod."

She didn't remember if she had actually mentioned that, but it didn't matter. Of course, as a Radchaai she would have had food and housing no matter what, but it didn't work if you got addicted to kef and left.

What a perfectly thing to exist in normal conversation. Rosa shook her head a little, feeling that while she completely understood these sorts of things now, a part of her brain might still never completely be able to fully accept it.

"A thousand years?" she asked. "All your stuff had to practically be antiques by then."

"They worked fine," she said. "It was just that my House was gone. I was stuck on a dirty fucking backwater station where I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying, and fucking station had to translate, and then they told me Vendaai was gone, all assets, contracts, everything had been absorbed by Geir!"

The shots she fired in between these words gradually got better, until the final one hit the head of the target. Seivarden paused, looked at the the result, then fired one more.

"Good shot," said Rosa, after a moment, as it seemed she was hitting more than targets today. She killed of the last of her round with a few shots of her own, general ones close to the chest, trying to decide whether to ask the next question that came to mind.

Eh, why not? It would probably just be the one question anyway, since she couldn't see herself having much to follow it up with.

"How long was it after that that you wound up here?"

It wasn't like she was going to spill her guts out anyway.

"About a year. No, probably less. I didn't keep track."

She reloaded. Buying a gun had been just what she needed apparently.

"Mmm."

Sure enough, Rosa didn't know what she was going to do with that information, or why she'd even want it in the first place, but there it was, and she didn't really have anything to say or follow it up with. So she reloaded and unloaded again in short order, making a disapproving face even though the shots were pretty much right where she wanted them.

Trigger was just a bit stiff for her tastes, but she figured she could get used to it.

Better leave that subject.

"Can I try yours?" Seivarden asked. "Just to feel the difference."

Rosa shrugged. "Only if I get to try yours," she said, though she was already offering her out, with a faint grin.

"Careful, though. Trigger's still pretty tight, and I"m used to a heavy one."

Seivarden smirked a little. "You think I can't handle that?"

She held out her own gun to Rosa, reaching for the one being offered.

"Just some advice," Rosa said, shrugging again before giving the gun Seivarden'd picked out for herself a closer inspection. "Don't need to have you go screwing up my new gun before I've even had a chance to really enjoy it."

Seivarden let out a laugh. "You don't have to worry."

Which was true. Seivarden was generally good at messing things up, but not when it came to guns.

She stood next to Rosa, perhaps a little bit too close and a little bit too long, while examining the gun, then took a step back towards her own shooting lane.

It was difficult not to notice when Seivarden...lingered. Rosa could be pretty good at noticing things, too; she'd made a career out of it, and she was just about to say something, to ask if something was wrong, with the gun, with something else, when Seivarden moved away.

Which allowed her to get settled in her lane, too, checking the gun over one last time before aiming for a few good shots at nearly the exact same spot at the center of the target.

Every type of weapon was a little different, that seemed to be true on Earth as well. She was getting used to the basics though, and it made an improvement, but Seivarden knew that should this be a competition today, Rosa would be the winner. She wasn't going to stoop down to being sore loser.

While reloading, she said: "Does Security carry guns everywhere here? I mean, police?"

"Here as in this island," Rosa fired another shot, "this country," another one, "or this planet?" Followed by a third.

And a little wrinkle of her nose that the last point was a completely legitimate part of a question.

"Is there a difference?" Seivarden asked.

Rosa snorted slightly. "Yeah," she said, "there's a difference. Different countries'll have different laws. Here in the States, at least, nearly every law enforcement officer's authorized to carry a firearm at all times. Here on the island? I just assume everyone's armed to the teeth."

...she certainly was.

"In the Radch they generally just carry stun sticks, on stations at least. If it gets worse they call in the military. It's hard to hide weapons from a station though, planetside it's easier, of course."

She shrugged. "If you carry armour it's not really an issue if other people are armed anyway."

She fired a few shots.

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Atlas Shooting Range, Thursday afternoon.

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