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  • 📅 February and March 2024 are YE 46.2 in the RP.

RP: The Wayward Shopping Trip (Ep. 4 Aside)

Blizzard

Inactive Member
Waypoint Trade Station

Adiel shrugged as the duo made their way through the crowd, heading to a location where the angel knew a weapon could be purchased. Discreetly, that is.

"...Worry not. Using a firearm is as simple as it gets. It's so easy, in fact, that a Rixxikor can do it with little difficulty."

Analiese shrugged a bit as she walked along. She shook her head, "Maybe to you. You grew up in a society that allowed the use of firearms. Or at least went into training. I...I never did. You've seen how I am around them."

"Yes, well, that should change once you become accustomed to them. I would happily teach you." Adiel mused, eyes scanning the street signs. He was leading them into a more ritzy area of the station. As time passed, they saw more and more people dressed in the same fashion as the Elysian, causing Ana to stick out like a sore thumb amongst the finely pressed suits and business wear.

"Maybe. Sure." She looked around and frowned at all the suits. "Is it me or am I a bit...out of place here?" She tried to stay as close to him as possible to hide. Adiel chuckled lowly and looked down at her, taking note of her clothing. Some passerby would give Ana confused glances, wondering if there was a water pipe somewhere that needed maintenance. But their eyes didn't linger, mostly out of fear of provoking the tall, dangerous-looking Elysian next to her.

"Hm... Yes, very much I should say." he muttered, leading Ana to, of all places, a tailor's shop. The suits in the window seemed to bear great resemblance to the suits that Adiel himself fancied. It seemed to be the least likely place in the world to purchase a gun. "Ah! Here we go! Ladies first."

He reached for the door handle and opened it, stepping aside and gesturing Ana through.

Ana swallowed as she stepped through the doorway. She had opened her mouth to say that she wasn't a lady, but then thought better of it. Snapping her jaw shut, she looked around with a frown, not quite sure why they were in this place for a gun. There were, she thought, open places for a weapon...right?

"Are you sure...?" She started to ask. Adiel put a hand on her shoulder.

"Do not worry. What we're doing isn't illegal... technically. I just prefer it this way. The prices are cheaper, and nothing about the transaction is recorded." he whispered. At that moment, an older Nepleslian man briskly walked over from the back of the store, with silver hair and a robotic arm. He was dressed to the nines in a suit most likely made of some unheard of, exotic material. He stopped in front of them, looking from Ana to Adiel.

"Adiel." he greeted curtly. Adiel smiled.

"Hello, Gharret. I'm here for a new set of cufflinks." said the Elysian. The elder man raised an eyebrow.

"What sort of cufflinks?" Gharret asked.

"Do you, perhaps, have anything made from zesuaium?" Adiel asked. Gharret stiffened slightly, but slowly nodded and motioned for the two to follow him.

"I may have something like that." replied the old Nepleslian under his breath, leading them to the back room of the store.

Analiese followed the Nepleslian, not too surprised at his arm nor his attitude. She didn't know what the metal was that Adiel asked for, but she knew better than to question it. Quietly she followed along, looking at the various wares. Sadly, they seemed to be all for bodies that were shaped more like men than women.

As they approached the backroom, her attention went back to the two men. Gharret ushered them inside, then shut the door behind them and locked it. The room was full of several sewing machines and mannequins for clothing. A typical tailor's workshop. From the inside of his jacket, the old man produced a datapad. A few taps of the screen later, a low hum could be heard as a large mirror on the wall began to split apart, revealing several shelves, all lined with guns of various makes and models. There were small pistols, hand cannons, rifles, shotguns, the works. Some fired solid bullets, and some fired energy bolts.

"Take your pick, and I'll give you a price," Gharret explained to Adiel, having no clue who the weapon was actually for. "Lord knows you'll negotiate it down several hundred, you frugal bastard. If you want to test it out, let me know and I'll take you downstairs to the shooting range."

"A pleasure as always, Gharret." sighed Adiel with a small grin and moved forward to inspect the weapons with his hands behind his back. He kept his eyes mostly on the smaller handguns. Something that Analiese could stow away without interfering with her work.

"Hm... Ana, what about this one?" he suggested, gesturing to a Zen Arms "Little Killer" laser pistol. "Personally, I prefer solid ammunition over lasers, but that's nothing more than personal preference."

Blinking a bit as she looked over the weapon, Analiese came closer tentatively. She kept her hands in her pockets for now, not too keen on even getting this close to them. She always stayed away from the armory on ship.

"Lasers...solid ammunition...what's the difference?" She kept her gaze on the pistol in his hand, just out of reach of it but close enough to see that it didn't look like anything that Tanja had on ship that she knew of. Adiel gripped the pistol in his hands, keeping his finger off the trigger, and aimed it towards a blank wall. It was extremely lightweight, and small. Thus, he had a feeling it would fit well in Ana's hands.

"Solid ammunition is, well, 'bullets'. Pull the trigger, and a slug of lead flies towards the target. It's usually cheaper to produce than an energy weapon. And a weapon that fires bullets can be supressed," Adiel explained, reaching into his jacket with a free hand and pulling out his silenced .45 for show. He stuffed it back in its holster. "Lasers, on the other hand, have better penetrating capabilities. They work excellently against power armor, although I do not think we will be encountering any power armor. Those are used mostly by the Star Army and Astral Vanguard. Very rarely will they be in the hands of civillians."

He further examined the "Little Killer" in his hand. "What do you think, Ana? Does this one strike your fancy? The choice is yours, after all."

Ana chewed on her lip for a moment in thought. She studied the weapon Adiel was holding onto and tilted her head before asking, "You said that this wouldn't kill right away...right?"

Adiel cocked an eyebrow at the girl, clearly bewildered at such an odd statement.

"No. I said nothing of the sort. Guns are used for killing. Thus, they are designed to kill immediately. It would be cruel to leave a man in agony. No, better to end it quickly."

She blinked a bit and looked back at the weapon, "Oh. That...that's good. I mean..I wouldn't want anyone to be suffering. Okay. And the laser is...silent? Or at least quieter than the other kind?"

Adiel pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled. He reminded himself that the girl before him had never touched a gun before. Patience... Patience...

"No. Guns that fire bullets can be silenced to make less noise. A laser weapon cannot, due to the way a laser gun works. Lasers, on the other hand, have a better chance of penetrating armor plating than bullets."

Ana scrunched her nose in thought. "Oh. Okay. Perhaps we should get one of each kind so I can...umm...t-test them?" She was really uncomfortable with this, but at the same time she was really trying. Only because of his willingness to aid her in arming herself helped her to slowly overcome her fear.

Adiel nodded, silently pleased that Ana wasn't going to turn tail and run. That was good. She deserved to live without fear, he thought. He reached into the lapel of his jacket and retrieved his Zen .45. It was your standard .45 caliber pistol, with a silencer attatched to keep weapon noise low. He held it in his right, with the Little Killer in his left.

"Gharret, if you would?"

Gharret nodded and removed a keychain from his pocket, moving to an unassuming closet door by the one they'd entered through. He unlocked it, then swung it open, revealing a set of well-lit stairs leading down to what was supposedly a shooting range. Adiel grinned down at Ana and handed her the Little Killer.

"Keep the weapon pointed down, away from others, and your finger off of the trigger until I tell you otherwise. Come along." said the Elysian as he began descending the steps. Down below, the narrow flight opened into a soundproofed room with multiple stalls, each facing downrange towards a wall of metal targets.

Ana paled when he held the gun out to her. She wasn't quite ready to take it. Not yet. A small whimper escaped her as she hesitated before steeling her resolve and reached out to retrieve the weapon from his hand. She held it in her own left hand, her index finger laying along the side as the other fingers wrapped around the handle.

She stood there for a moment as he went to the stairs, swallowing. Her hand shaking, she kept the Little Killer angled down and slowly turned to follow. She could feel her heart racing as she descended the stairs, knowing that from this point on she couldn't turn back.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs and saw the range, she was rather relieved to notice that they were the only ones there. Had anyone else, other than the proprietor of the establishment, been around she probably would have tried to back out, even then.

"Adiel," she quietly said, her voice shaking a bit, "what if...what if this doesn't work?" She sniffled a bit and lowered her gaze some, "What if...even after all of this...out there...I freeze?"

The Elysian showed no visible pity. In his mind, this was a good thing. Fears were something to attack head on, and that was what he intended to help Ana do. He would never treat her as the delicate child that the others seemed to view her as. She would never change under such conditions. He reached out and curled his pointer finger beneath Ana's chin, then gently tilted her head backwards to look her in the eyes.

"You won't." said Adiel firmly, yet calmly. Then, he pulled away. That was it. No pretty, soothing words. Just a promise. Then, he turned and moved to a stall, racking the slide on his own pistol and taking a shooting stance. "Now, simply do as I do."

When Ana looked into his eyes, she could see a strength in them that the others tried to show her, yet never quite got across. A show of her own strength that she could grow into. Though she would still fear that when push comes to shove she might freeze up...but maybe...just maybe...she'd still push through it.

She watched as he went to one of the stalls and studied his form before she went to one and positioned herself in a similar manner. "Okay..."

"Now, on the top of the weapon are your sights. The rear sight is the V-shaped groove. Look through the groove and line up the front peg in the center of it. Wherever the top of the peg is covering, that is where your shot will land." Adiel explained as clearly as he could with a small smile. He had to keep in mind his audience. He aimed for the center of the chest of the human-shaped target downrange. "Always aim for the center of mass, no matter what. There are no 'wounding' shots with a gun. When you fire, it is always to kill. Thus, only draw your weapon if you intend to kill. When you are ready, take a few steady breaths and firmly squeeze the trigger."

Adiel exhaled, and fired twice. The silencer reduced the noise of the weapon to a soft whisper. both shots struck within the bullseye, so tightly grouped that they appeard to form one elongated hole.

Ana tilted her head a bit as she looked down the sights the way he described. Though she could tell what the target at the end was supposed to represent, to her it was just a black shadow on a white background. She aimed for what appeared to be the center of the greatest area, then put her finger on the trigger itself and squeezed once. Nothing happened. She frowned and stood there, shaking a bit for she wasn't sure what to expect. But nothing happening wasn't it. "Um...Adiel...something's wrong."

She didn't move from her position, for even her voice showed that she was a bit scared. Adiel flicked on the safety of his gun and set it on the table, then stepped over to Ana's stall. He sort of already had a feeling of what had gone wrong. He just needed to confirm.

"Turn off the safety." he instructed, pointing to a small switch on the left hand side of the weapon.

She tentatively looked at the safety and flicked the switch with her index finger before once more looking down the sights and pulling the trigger. Once. There was a loud "zapping" noise, a bright flash of red, then silence. Adiel took his eyes off of Ana to look at the target. It was unharmed. However, there was a suspicious-looking scorch mark in the sand bags piled up behind the targets. The Elysian chuckled lowly and shook his head.

"It was a valiant effort, but more practice is required, I'm afraid."

Peeking her eyes open, Ana blinked as she looked at the target. She wasn't disappointed that she missed. Nor was she relieved. In fact, her focus wasn't on the target at all but on the fact that she actually shot the gun in her hand. Swallowing, she lowered the pistol and fingered the safety back on before laying it carefully on the shelf in front of her. She took a step back and said softly, "Practice...yes." She turned and looked up at him, her features pale but her eyes...they were lit up! "I...I can't touch it again...yet. So...please...take it and put it away for me?"

Though she was excited and happy that she shot the gun, she also knew that she was in need of pacing herself...for this was a big step for her.

Adiel beamed and nodded. As they headed up the stairs, he told Ana to wait outside for him, telling her he had a few things to discuss with Gharret. When he was sure she was gone, he stuffed the weapon into his jacket and handed the "tailor" 100 KS.

Better safe than sorry, after all.
 
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