/takes the huntress out back and buries it (jan mingle pt. II)

[scrubscrub]

Who: Anyone on the SS Huntress! Crew and visitors.
Broadcast: N/A
Action: SS Huntress
When: More of January! We got three new crew mates and it will be messy.

IT'S ANOTHER MINGLE FOR OUR EVER-EXPANDING SHIP.

Also, we need an update on how well Koala is doing at pinball.

God, help this ship.

Comments

[ino]

Depending on the gun, it might be harder to aim if your arms are weak, since some of them can get pretty huge -- but yeah, basically. The projectiles come out pretty fast -- nothing we couldn't dodge easily, but most people aren't so fast.

Also, it does a different type of damage to the target. It's more severe of a wound if it hits and harder to heal than something like a stab wound. So you don't have to be as accurate to do serious damage.

[eyeforaneye]

[ It just gets worse and worse, this weapon. Again he looks it over, trying to attach such a heavy value and damage factor to such an insignificant-looking object. At least he isn't stupid enough to look directly into the barrel, but the urge is definitely there. ]

So shooting the projectile just involves compressing this lever here? [ His finger naturally finds the trigger, but his touch is light and clearly without the intent to actually follow through so quickly. ] It'll be hard to witness the effect without a human target.

[ino]

Yeah, that's why we're going down to the cargo bay. There'll probably be a punching bag or something to shoot at. It's not the same, but you'll get the idea.

[ And she was getting on him about ruining the blender ... ]

And yes, you use -- it's called a "trigger" to shoot, but there's a device on them called a "safety" to keep them from being fired accidentally.

[eyeforaneye]

[ The mystical power of Uchiha Sasuke: making you forget why you're mad at him. ]

... these people really do need to be coddled. They should learn to be more responsible with their weaponry. [ A 'safety'? Yeah, someone trying to rely on something like that in the shinobi world wouldn't last too long, even in one of the gentler villages like Konoha. ]

[ino]

[ She laughs a little. ]

To be fair, there are a lot of ways the other kind can go off accidentally, regardless of the skill of the person handling it. Since it relies on a sort of chemical reaction with the powder inside, a lot can go wrong.

[ That doesn't really help the people who might accidentally fire the blasters, though. But in any case, she hops down the stairs into the cargo bay now, scanning the nearby area for something that could be used as an easy target ... Aha! There's a punching bag, all right.

She'll turn to Sasuke now, demonstrating how to take the safety off. ]

As for this one, you just push this part down, and then it'll be ready to fire.

[ She'll lift the gun to point it at the bag ... and fires! She hits dead center, leaving a decent-sized smoking hole in the poor thing. She's clearly had a little practice at this, at least! ]

[eyeforaneye]

[ Even taking that into account Sasuke remains Uchiha-levels of critical, clicking his tongue at the very attempt of a defense. In his mind, a weapon is as safe to its owner as the owner is intelligent, no more.

But never mind that, he has a lesson in firearms to attend to. The safety is almost instantaneously flicked off on his own gun before he looks back to Ino, watching her take aim... but he's less focused on the trajectory and more on the placement of her fingers and the tension in her wrist, seeing the barest sign of recoil after the gun is fired.

So there shouldn't be much to adjust for, then. ] No other secret tricks? Practice shouldn't even be necessary. [ Not when he's been hitting moving targets with tiny bits of metal since he was six. ]

[ino]

Yep, that's pretty much it.

[ She moves to put the safety back on ]

These don't really have much of a recoil, but the bullet ones do -- the bigger they are, the harder it is to keep your aim straight when you fire. That's about the only thing that you'd have to account for.

[ She twirls the gun with a finger stuck through the trigger guard, glancing back at the hole in the punching bag. ]

It's a bit useless as we are now, but there's been situations where I've been cut off from my chakra entirely and needed an effective way to defend myself. Since it's a civilian's weapon, it works pretty well for that purpose.

[eyeforaneye]

[ Naturally he wants to think he could defend himself even without the use of his chakra but he'd admit to its difficulty, not much more than a physically trained fighter without it and even then they use chakra so often in just basic attacks without even thinking about it. ]

Hn. [ ... okay, fine, he'll work through his proud grumpiness. ]

I'll keep it in mind if things become that desperate. [ He raises that gun, finally, taking aim after watching how she'd adjusted hers... and the shot nearly mirrors it as a result, the hole she'd left barely at all widened by his shot. Though of course he considers it imperfect, inwardly displeased and it shows in a deepened frown. ]

[ino]

[ Ino just looks amused. ]

Careful, if you hit a wall you might break something.

[eyeforaneye]

[ He turns to her so slowly, just giving her the most emotionless look. ]

... I'll add it to my training. [ Completely unnecessarily but oh it's on now. ]

[ino]

[ She just starts giggling. ]

Ooh, scary~

[eyeforaneye]

...

I'm keeping this gun for myself. Does the armory ever receive additions?

[ino]

[ Still laughing. A little. But she'll answer. ]

If they do, we haven't gotten any yet. I get the feeling that once all the ships max out their regular upgrades we might get the option to buy something like that.

In the meantime, though, it's pretty much just whatever you can find where we stop if you want to add to your weapons.

[eyeforaneye]

In that case I'll need to take what I can before anyone else shows interest. [ Thank you for confirming that so that he can now become a hoarder.

Not that he particularly needs anything, they just serve as useful comfort objects for someone devoid of any others. ] I'll keep my eyes open when we land next.

[ino]

[ ... She gives him a bit of a flat look. ]

I know you said you don't care if people like you or not, but you do have to live with them from now on, so. Leave some of the things that are meant to be public property for everyone to use, okay?

[eyeforaneye]

[ But if he has all the guns then he'll be safer from their hate; you're not thinking this through, Ino. ]

I'll figure out how to coexist with these people. I'll read how they react to things. [ So he says, but he's pretty socially stunted from general isolation throughout key developmental periods in his life. ]

[ino]

Or you could just ... practice common decency ...

[ She trails off, though, because like that's going to happen. ]

[eyeforaneye]

[ ... yeah, think that over. ]

My way will work better.

[ino]

[ She puts a hand to her forehead, clearly holding back about a thousand not-very-nice comments. Takes a deep breath.

Aaaand changes the subject. ]

Well. Any other questions?

[ About the guns, that is ]

[eyeforaneye]

[ He is definitely fine with a subject change. ]

Do the guns need to recharge or regain their energy somehow?

[ino]

From what I understand, these can get overheated if you fire them too often, too quickly.

[ She looks at the barrel curiously ]

And then they'd need to cool down and recharge. But as long as you can, you know, aim, you shouldn't have to keep firing so often like that.

The other type of gun has to have its ammunition refilled, though. They come with a limited amount of projectile bullets.

[eyeforaneye]

[ Again Sasuke inspects the gun, clearly questioning. There must be some wear and tear on it that requires eventual replacement of parts or of an energy source. ]

It's obvious that that won't be an issue, assuming I use it at all. I'd still prefer a bow over this.

[ino]

Yeah, yeah. Well, I doubt it'll be very long before we stop again, so you can hopefully find something you'd like better there.

[ Though with their luck they'd probably stop on some kind of anti-weapon planet ]

Like I said before, though, the majority of dangerous situations here so far has involved being able to maneuver the ship out of danger or fire the ship's weapons instead. There's not a lot of personal conflicts or enemies that can be fought one-on-one.

[eyeforaneye]

[ The planet of cooks. ]

Then it seems that trying to gain mastery over those controls should be my next priority. [ Right. He doesn't even know what a car is. ]

What sort of danger?

[ino]

With your augment, that might be ... well, we'll see.

[ She frowns. Not that she doesn't think Sasuke couldn't learn eventually, but the augments make it very difficult to learn stuff outside of their own job, so ... ]

We've had an unidentifiable enemy fleet attack us twice. We've tried everything to figure out who they are, what they want -- nothing. We've managed to get them off our trail since the last attack, but I've organized some drills with my ship and the other ships willing to cooperate to practice what we need to do if they somehow show up again.