imeeji_frontstage | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Maki & whoever else
Where: vid room
When: Day 46, afternoon

[This afternoon the vid room is set up as a shooting range, with targets for both firearms and archery. On the wall are... a lot of weapons; guns, bows and crossbows. There's ammo on a table.

It's all holographic, so it's... probably safe?

It's good for practice, anyway, which appears to be what Maki is doing; she starts out taking a few shots with an old-looking revolver.]

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[someone misses his own model gun from home, okok.

also: girlfriend so pretty with a ~~pistol~~ revolver]

S'got a lot of kickback, huh.

Mm. And you have to be careful with black powder.

[she takes one final shot which passes precisely through the hole in the center of the target left by her previous shot, and then offers the gun to him]

[wow. taking the gun while looking impressed.]

Show off.

[so uh. he definitely doesn't remember all that practice with guns but like. at least his body remembers the general stance.

DECENT SHOT but needs work for sure]

[The gun also isn't particularly accurate to start with, making shooting as perfectly as she did impossible without cheating]

You need some practice.

[hence the "show off" comment]

I'm a little rusty, yeah. Any tips?

Hmm.

[She puts her hands over his to adjust his grip slightly]

And you need to pull the trigger a little more smoothly.

Gently finger the trigger, got it.

[straightest face as he says it]

[a twitch of her lips]

I didn't say gently. Do it firmly, with follow-through. If you stop short you might misjudge when it goes off.

Very helpful advice.

[one he does follow through with but also can't help but smile this time]

Much better.

I just happen to have a good instructor.

Speaking of, have you been doing this all day?

...No, I just got back a little bit ago.

"Just got back", huh.

[eyebrows raised in questioning of where she disappeared off to after the fanmail.]

...Intensity... took me to his office in the hospital.

... ah. Makes sense.

[ok. that explains.

gonna take another shot.

much closer to the mark.]

Mm.

[she feels like she should say something else, but she's not sure what, so while she thinks about it she gets another set of bullets to place by him, since the revolver only holds five shots]

[he does stop to reload it, but mostly seems to be just toying with the cylinder, spinning it and whatnot.]

Glad it's working out, at least.

From that side of things, anyway.

[...]

...Do you mind... talking about it a bit more? Not here. You can finish practicing first, if you want.

[looks a little surprised by the question]

Why would I mind?

Anyway, I think I'm done for now, so I'm good to go whenever you are.

I finished up the most important thing, so I'm fine for now.

[she doesn't answer the other question until they are out of the vid room]

...A minds a lot, still. And he won't talk to me about it.

[is this her actual gun? passing it back if it is.]

Is that really a surprise? He's hurt, and he doesn't like to show weakness to begin with.

[it is not, it was a holograph of the same model. her actual gun is still tucked away]

He's never kept refusing to talk to me like this before.

[wonder what it's like to actually get him to talk--somehow only seems to manage that by accident.

but he's quiet for a moment, mulling it over.]

It's probably because he's already vocalized the issue and if goes further, it's not going to be a productive discussion on his side.

I know you say you and him are the same in a lot of ways, but this is an area where we're more alike. [gestures between the two of them.] A still cares a lot about what others think of him. So this sort of thing is a blow to that. Especially since you're involved.

...I know we're not totally the same. We fought about that, initially... that he thinks he has this image he had to maintain to keep on everyone's good side and I thought worrying about what everyone thought about me was a waste of energy. It's just, there were the same sorts of things behind it.

I don't think this is exactly about that, though. What I think about him is different from what people in general think about him. That's the point, really... I understand him better than anyone else. Our relationship was meant to be different than anyone else. And it still is, but... he feels like he's starting to lose it. So, better to shut it down and pretend like he doesn't care before it gets worse. Something like that.

[she heads towards the elevator]

[following after, easily. leaning against the wall a bit.]

That's definitely part of it.

The other part of it is... well, you did bring it up after we'd spent a lot of time looking out for you while you were sick from poison. It was probably a bit of a slap in the face, to him, to bring up opening up the relationship--that whole "it's only been a week" line he threw out that time summing it up.

[i mean. can sorta understand that angle a lot, actually?]

... our situations are a lot different, but the biggest thing that was upsetting to A about the Oni thing--aside from the fact that it was Oni--was that... it was humiliating to him. He'd been putting in effort into the relationship and then I did something that read to him like none of his efforts mattered.

He ended up feeling like he was made a fool of, when the reality of the situation wasn't that at all--or at least, not how I saw it, or see it.

So it wouldn't surprise me if being told you wanted to open the relationship up again after a week--half of which we spent making sure you were okay--made him feel a bit foolish.