broadcast 01

[tothefly]

Who: Natasha Romanoff and various guests
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Post-broadcast, abandoned waystation? Action prompt in comments
When: During bugfest 20XX

[On screen, there's a very calm redhead looking thoughtfully at the camera, one brow slightly cocked.]

It's occurred to me that the fleet has about ten times as many firearms as it does medical professionals. It's also been pretty apparent that a lot of our cast members don't know the basics of gun safety and use. If anyone wants to learn, I'll be at the following coordinates.

[The message ends with a bit of text, the location of one of the abandoned waystations in near orbit.]

Comments

[tothefly]

[Polly at least handles the weapon like someone who's seen one before, which is good. She trusts her captain with a weapon a little more than she would anyone else, in any case, which is to say, more than not at all.]

I've had weapons training. More than most can say, here. What about you?

[grabthecheese]

Nothing like this.

[She lifts the gun a little as she says it - but she's smart enough, or experienced enough, not to point it at either of them. Which she knows is more than can be said for some people.]

We had pistol horsebows. We stole them off the Zlobenian First Heavy Dragoons. [If she sounds proud of that, it's because she is.] The general principle's the same, right? Point, aim, fire? But I don't know more than that.

[tothefly]

[She at least knows which end to hold, and which to point--or not point--at other people. That's more than some, and definitely a thing she appreciates.]

General principle's the same for most firearms I've met. It's only the details that get tricky. These are fairly basic, aside from the settings, and there's no ammunition to worry about. Not much recoil, either.

[She indicates a lane that looks like it was marked off with orange paint, still fresh and slightly damp. There's a large, orange cross painted at the wall on the far end of the alley, about six yards away.]

Give it a try?

[Show her what you've got, Cap'n.]

[grabthecheese]

[Polly will just walk over to that lane, then, though she doesn't immediately lift her gun again.]

And there's no wind here to worry about.

[A pistol horsebow shoots straight over shorter distances even with some wind, but it's still something to keep in mind. Unless you're in space, where there's no such thing as weather. Which Polly has found she misses.

But it does feel good to hold a weapon again, and when she raises it up and fires, it turns out she's pretty good. Her first shoots are too far left, but she pauses, adjusts her aim, and places one almost right in the centre of the x.]

It feels different.

[tothefly]

[Weather isn't particularly something Natasha misses, though she's not exactly fond of the recycled air. A fresh breeze might be pretty welcome, or being in a place where she can't see a ceiling or walls surrounding her, just for a change.

Watching Polly, Natasha studies her stance, the way she focuses, and her grip on the gun, coming to stand behind her and to the right, away from the shots.]

No recoil, at least nothing like what I think of as recoil. And not having projectiles means you don't have to account for the arc of the bullet. It affects how you think about your shots.