Day 021: This Is My Rifle, This Is My Gun
Summary: Three ex-Cs provide rifle lessons for those interested.
Date: 10 June 2016
Related: Splits into Grey's Rifle Lesson, Kai's Rifle Lesson, and Stone's Rifle Lesson
Grey Stone Cassandra Morgan Cameron Kai Tink Ariadne Elias Fiona Gideon Jael 


Grounds, The Camp

With the removal of underbrush and a half-dozen small trees, there is now a tiny clearing around the dropship. It has begun to fill with detritus from the ship, including all of the seating, padding, and removable plates or bulkheads.

Several tents have been set up within the clearing, set close together within the confines of the surrounding trees. A small collection of weapons sits under a parachute-cloth shelter by the door of dropship, open for community use. A three-holer latrine is set up downwind of camp in the prevailing breezes, and a rough wall stretches between trees at the edge of the clearing, dropship plates and felled tree-trunks stacked up and lashed together as best as the Delinquents can manage. There is a gate at the north end, a single panel that can be rolled aside at need.

The forest immediately surrounding the camp has been cowed into near-silence, but is still vibrant and green to a people used to stark metal bulkheads all around them.

21 Days After Landing

The afternoon is still early, the sun bright but not yet sweltering. Ten of the camp's precious rifles are loaded and in the hands of guards atop the wall or the dropship. The other fourteen are in the center of the camp. Three are loaded and in the hands of ex-Cadet instructors, and the other eleven are unloaded and laid out on one of the cook-tables, laboriously dragged out for this purpose. Partially-loaded magazines sit nearby in a plastic container, in case of an attack.

Speaking of instructors, Lucian Grey hurries out to the table, shrugging a little helplessly and apologetically to his fellow ex-Cs. He's under doctor's orders to keep his wounds clear of any obstruction (although he suspects there may be a secondary consideration too, given the identity of the doctor in question), and so he carries his Grounder-made armored jacket rather than wearing it, dropping it off alongside the table and stretching a little to painfully test the pull of the twin cauterized wounds at his right side. "Ow. That was stupid."

For his part, the so-called Boy Scout (maybe Holes or Pincushion by now), Billy Stone, probably shouldn't be up and moving at this point, less than a day after having an arrow put straight through his throat, one in his chest, and two more grazing him. But here he is. Wearing a cargo vest with no shirt underneath but barely showing any dark skin for how effective his impression of a movie Mummy is, the giant ex-C somehow looks cheerful despite the wounds. Hell, between this battle and his lingering convalessence from being nearly cut in half in the Rescue on Day 6, the man is gonna have some pretty scars after all of this is said and done. Ya know, unless they all die soon. Either way, here he is, looming all the more for standing near Kai, rifle slung over his less wounded shoulder, cradled loosely in arms to keep the barrel well above everyone's heads. When Grey's coming along and hurting himself, Stone can't help but smirk and rasp out in a horror-movie voice. "That's the way. Always show off brilliance first thing for your students. It let's them know you know your stuff."

It's been made pretty clear of late that Cassandra should not be handling any rifles. Doubly so because she still has a giant bruise on the side of her head and a bandage partitioning layers of her matted hair, but pointing a gun at a handsome blonde Grounder recently has made her unpopular with some of the delinquents more inclined towards peace. Still she stubbornly shows up, against doctor's orders for her wellbeing and likely against the wishes of many for their own, hands tucked into her jacket pockets and features impassive. Her stroll out of her tent by the wall is patiently slow, yet determined.

Cam has managed this war without serious injury. In fact, except that time when Stone got practically cut in half, where Cameron took his only wound— a cut to the hand, as he fatally cut the enemy's hand right back— he's managed this experience pretty well. Well, then the plague happened. At least he's only kind of limping still. But anyways. War's coming, so Cam is decked out in all his battle gear. Armor, sword, 'knife'. And pistol, tucked into his belt. He's keeping all weapons with him all the time, these days. He wanders up to Grey, eyes him a moment, "Heard you guys ran into trouble, Grey. Look on the bright side, you got to skip the plague." That said, he turns a concerned look over to Silas, "Man, Stone, if you tear open one of those stitches I'm not only telling Morgan but I'm gonna make sure he puts in twice as many next time." A clear threat, if meant well, in his tone.

"Completely." Morgan agrees, giving Grey a grin. "Remind me to try to make some kind of salve for you to keep it hydrated and flexible. Which is to say, ask Cam the botanist to make one.

Kai'd be one of the other instructors, the flat-eyed captain's daughter entirely inclined to give Grey plenty of disapproving shade as she shakes her head, the only one of the three that doesn't really count as injured,"Right then, boys and girls. As most of you are already aware, what happened yesterday was only the precursor. Tomorrow or the day after, we've been told to expect an attack. And oddly enough.. we don't aim on dying. But there's some rules going into this. One is you have to be able to take instruction. If we don't work together.. we are all screwed. The other is we do have allies amongst the Grounders, and anyone who can't be arsed remembering that doesn't get a rifle." yes Cass, she's totally looking at you as she calls it out.

<FS3> Grey rolls Alertness: Good Success.

Tink is standing there without a clue but clearly ready to learn as she stands there moving from foot to foot in surpressed excitement. During the last attack, all she got to do was reload and fix a jammed gun. Now it looks like she's finnally getting to shoot one, "Man…I can't believe they're actually letting me handle a rifle…" She says to no one in particular.

Ariadne is standing near those gathered with her hands buried deeply in the pockets of her pants. Upon hearing Tink's words she gives her a little lop-sided grin and nods in agreement. She looks slightly uneasy, but she seems to be eagerly paying attention to those she imagines will be the instructors.

Cameron gives an easy nod for Kai, seeming to accept her rules as reasonable, so he doesn't really add anything for the moment.

Elias makes his way onto the grounds after a short, but much needed sleep. Still recovering from days of awful, he makes his way out of his tent with bags under his eyes. Still, he looks more well-rested than he has in the past few days. He walks towards where everyone is gathering for rifle training and takes a long look around at those seeming to be settling into the training. For the moment, he hangs back and watches.

Eyeing Kai very purposefully, Cassie takes a hand out of her pocket and then steps right up to reach for a rifle. Her stony yet swollen, raccoon eyes make their challenge clear, though she's otherwise silent on the matter. But not on this matter: "I like you shirtless," she says to Grey, glancing his way. "Good call, Morgan. It's to keep everyone's attention on the teacher, right?" Teachers are notoriously her type, after all, if the beloved fellow she got floated on the Ark before she was incarcerated is any indication.

Fiona is finally being allowed to move about camp, though she's been instructed to keep her efforts minimal. She's interested in the training though, so she takes up a spot to watch. Her face is rather pale from pain, but she seems attentive. The edge of Morgan's stitchwork can be seen above the neckline of her shirt.

Grey snorts at Stone, "Hey, I'm not teachin' 'em how to follow doctor's orders. Just how to shoot." He shrugs at Cam a touch, careful to only use his left shoulder, "Lip tried to talk to them. Did pretty good, but they didn't wanna hear it." Cassandra gets a snort, "You just like it 'cause I don't have the baton." He nods to Morgan, then blinks at Cameron's waist, arching an eyebrow at the pistol there. Kai's speaking, then, and he looks over to her, adding in, "We'll train anyone who wants training, but just because you're gettin' training doesn't mean you'll be getting a loaded rifle when the time comes. Those are only goin' to our best shots and most reliable people. We don't have enough rifles for everyone to get one, or enough ammo to give 'em to people who are gonna spray-and-pray." He holds out his left hand to stop Cassandra from grabbing the unloaded rifle on the table right away, "So first things first, you do not point a rifle at anything you don't want shot." When he raises his voice for emphasis, he winces and presses his right hand to his side, but continues on, "Period. I don't care if you just checked it's unloaded. Got it?" As an example, his own rifle is carried in a ready sling across his chest, barrel down and to the left, butt up near his right shoulder.

Gideon has selected a place on the grounds where she can watch, but not exactly participate. She looks very un-Grounder at the moment with her clean skin and hair, red and white hockey jersey, and clashing fatigues. She has her arms crossed at her chest, looking precariously at those who are now armed with rifles. She keeps casting a glance to the west, as if the glowing eye of the Mountain could be seen. Then she settles her attention back on the gathered ex-Cadets and their new students. She as her bow and quiver, the former neatly snapped into the latter, but is otherwise unarmed.

Stone adds atop Kai's comment and after Tink's, that newly-ragged voice like stones grinding over each other when raised to enough volume to carry, bringing a wincing grimace from him for it. "There's a couple other rules before even gettin' considered for handlin' a rifle." A flash of white-toothed grin cast Tink's way to take any sting out of the comment. "Like being able to prove you won't shoot one of us in the back by accident or on purpose with it for instance. I make a big target for friendly fire and I got enough holes for today, thanks." Even smirking, he's reaching up to rub very delicately at his pained throat after that addition. You'd think he'd leave the other two to do the talking, but apparently not. Didn't he used to be all shy and quiet most of the time? As Cassie's reaching for a rifle from the table though, Stone's taking one of his long-legged steps to put his bulk between everyone and the table, towering over her as he rumble-rasps out for all to hear. "Like the man said. Not until you've all got to the basics. No touching, even if you got one at the battle."

"Umm. Isn't that obvious?" asks Cameron with a blink towards Grey's dont-point-at-people rule, seeming perplexed this needs to be told. "Do we really have time to go over the things everyone who isn't a complete idiot should know?" Then he pauses, and turns a slow, pointed look at Cassandra, and notices she seems to want a gun. "Nevermind. Carry on, Grey." he nods his head firmly.

Kai steps forward to hold a hand up towards Cass with a shake of her head, no give in her expression,"We've already got a job for you anyways." might just be a concillatory point made for the other girl as she slides her attention back to the two guys,"Groups?" she suggests to the other two.

Though Ariadne moves closer to the table, she doesn't reach for one of the weapons. Her hands remain stuffed deeply in her pocket. Dark brown eyes rest on Stone as he speaks and she takes a deep breath and awaits the lesson to begin. She's remained quiet since the landing, staying mostly to the fringes of the group, but it would seem that today, at least, that is not the case.

Morgan can't help but grin at Cam's comment though he doesn't look at Cass. Since he can see where Cameron is turning to, he doesn't need to. He just pays attention to what's being said while watching the others who are here.

Cassandra narrows her swollen eyes when the ex-Cs make their stance on her handling a rifle clear, but it's Stone's words specifically — tellingly, the ones about having to prove she won't shoot anyone in the back — that have her turning away. "This job involve a way to defend myself? Best be getting paid for it," she answers Kai back, pulling a Zoe. She starts to walk away with patient steps, intending to remain in view of the tutorial, but falling in line to the back of the class. It's Gideon kom Trikru in particular whom she moves to position herself closer to.

Hands shoved in the pockets of her jacket, Jael makes her way in the direction of the gathering, lingering at the edges and looking on curiously as she circles, then moves to fall in to her own place for the time being. She's humming a cheerful little song beneath her breath, for all that her cheeks are a little pale (more than usual, the freckles are more obvious) and there's a bit of puffy still going on around her eyes. The humming totally quiets as she gets within range, soas to not interrupt the useful talking.

Elias is markedly more interested in the Grounder in their midst than he is about learning to fire a rifle. A glance is cast over to Gideon before he starts making his way casually in her direction. If he's going to stand by and watch, he may as well bother her. "Hey," he offers with an upwards nod of his head before turning his attention back to the training in progress. Without looking back to her, he nods towards the training grounds. As much as they are, anyways. "What do you make of that?"

Grey nods to Stone and Kai in turn, "I wanna make one more point, Adams, then yeah." He nods to Cameron, "Exactly. People who haven't got training don't respect these things. You don't respect it, you get yourself or someone else killed. And I don't want that." Nodding again, "Last point, then we can break up. We'll show you the fire selector. You keep that sonofabitch on single if you're shooting, you got me? We don't have the ammo for anything else unless you know what you're doing." Nodding once more to the other ex-Cs, he steps back painfully, clearing the way to the rifles, "Alright. Groups on us. If there isn't a rifle for each of you," since there are a dozen or so other Delinquents hovering about too, "just stick close. We'll pass 'em around."

Since someone else is sticking to just observing, Fiona makes her way over to where Gideon is sitting, and wincing, settles down next to her. "Heya." she greets, the salutation casual, though she keeps her eyes on the gun training.

"Yeh, you will have better than average chances of survival." Kai drawls for Cass,"There's your payment. We'll address the particulars later." her gaze goes over the group, headcounting,"Nine." she surmises,"That means three each, way I reckon. Eli, Tink, Jael.. you guys are with me. Cameron, Morgan, Cass you can watch, and you guys with Stone. You.." this for Ariadne,"Fi and Gideon on Grey." the female ex-C divvies up, collecting a few of the rifles from the table with a tilt of her head for people to move off, at least giving the watchers someone to zero in on if they change their minds.

"Simplest sure." Stone agrees in response to Kai's question, having been watching Cassandra, frowning just a little, weariness touching his dark eyes, but he doesn't say anything to her. Instead, after Grey's direction, Stone's horror-voice is raising up again once more. "Actually, one more point on top of that one. If you end up takin' up a gone, you're gonna get yourself and others killed if you decide to go be a hero and do your own thing. If ya take up a weapon as deadly as these, you have to be able to work _with_ each other and take the occasional order for safety of all. Not gettin' into the politics of all this we got going, but in the middle of a fight, _please_ try to listen to the people who actually have some training in this." With that throat-hurting addition made, the Boy Scout is moving off to one end of the table to wait for the trio assigned his way.

It's not that Cam's not paying attention, because he is. He is very seriously so. Its just a function of gravity. Morgan's over there, and soon enough, Cameron's bumping his shoulder against the medtech's, and leaning a little. He blinks a moment at Kai, quirking a brow up and glancing sidelong over at Morgan before turning a questioning lookat Kai, looking vaguely accusing as he gives a glance over to Cassandra. HIs expression is all: seriously? You're putting me with her? But. He sighs, shrugs, and turns a quick grin for Stone, "So, Big Guy. Teach us the wisdom of the rifles to that we lay our enemies low and not put anymore holes in you on accident that Morgan has to sew up. I'm a botanist, not a nurse, man."

"I want a raise and better dental," Cass calls out in retort to Kai, but she doesn't turn back around to face her or the guns for now. By fate or coincidence, she finds herself in the exact same position she was in not twenty-four hours ago, albeit without a rifle: in the shadow of Fiona Kattegat and Elias Lapointe, facing a Grounder. She takes in the sight of Gideon in her new fatigues, tucking her hands back into her own jacket as she gives the woman a once-over. Pincushion Boy Scout's words get a glance over her shoulder, but nothing more.

Gideon looks around on either side of her as the three delinquents come take up a place beside her. She nods her head in silent greeting to Cassandra, offers a short, "Heya," to Fiona, and an upward nod of her head to Elias. She looks back at the teachers, head tipped aside. Then she crosses her arms, fingers curling into the jersey fabric. She frowns slightly. "This does not bode well," she more or less says under her breath.

Stepping toward Grey, Ariadne finally pulls her hands from her pockets. Though it isn't for long. She shoves her fingers in her back pockets casually. As she reaches Grey she waits patiently for the other students to join their little group. As she approaches she gives a nod of her head toward Grey and introduces herself in one word, "Ariadne."

"Double nothing is still nothing." Kai snarks for Cass, opening her mouth but deciding better of commenting regarding what she could do about dental, stepping off with an eye towards her trio with all the patience she can muster for the moment.

"Take it up with payroll," Jael chirps off for Cass, glancing that way briefly before she starts shuffling towards Kai. While there is eying of a gun, those little hands stay quite distinctly in her pockets. "Hey," she greets Kai.

Grey nods to Ariadne at the introduction, "Grey. Don't think we ran into each other in the Box." He gestures toward the unloaded rifles, "Grab a couple of them and head on over to Fi and Gideon?" He's going to assume that they're only going to need two demonstration rifles. Stepping over to Stone, he pitches his voice low, "Stick close to the ammo, make sure no one runs off with any?" And then he's moving off toward the group Kai picked out for him, grunting in pain as he bends over to pick up his armored jacket and carry it over in that direction with him, "So. First, questions from the audience." He's not going to bitch too hard if others hang around the group. They're all going to be learning somehow.

"You did well enough. I think I only almost reached up to break your neck once or twice during the sewing." Stone quips back to Cameron as he's reaching for one of the empty rifles on the table, tossing it to Morgan as the medtech approaches. The gigantic ex-C casts a glance over to Cass, frowning again, brows furrowing this time in actual irritation, and gravelly words snapping out her way. "Sulk over there if you want, Cassie. I'm gonna teach you regardless, because its the right thing t' do, but you make me continue raising my voice to do it so you can hear properly, I'm gonna get grumpy." Sighing as he turns back to Morgan and Cameron, muttering. "That probably just gave further incentive to do it." Pointing to Morgan, he rumbles. "Show me your shooting stance. Cam, show me yours with the pistol. If you're gonna carry that around, you should know what you're doin' with it."

"Hey J." Kai offers with a faint smile for the shorter girl,"You planning on watching or you wanna know how to use this thing?" she asks of her, whistling sharply,"Hey Elias, you coming?" called out to the other portion of her group.

Morgan catches the rifle but quirks a brow at Stone. "Sure you don't want to let someone else have it? Kai already gave me the basics and I was practicing in between taking care of people." Not firing of course but everything short of. "Cam should be familiar with a rifle too. And I should have an idea of how to use his pistol." Just in case.

A bitter, sallow sort Cass may be, but she is nothing if not practical. Arguing with the ex-Cs right now doesn't seem like the best use of her time, so instead she sizes Gideon up to turn an opportunity. "You going to teach me how to shoot?" she asks the Grounder in a quiet voice. "Since they won't. Probably not well anyway." That particular emphasis is said with another, more suspicious glance towards Stone, and then another to the ex-Cs around him. "I need to be able to defend myself, either way. Properly."

Cameron stares at Stone for a moment, "Man, just because I brought my gun doesn't mean I know what a stance is. All I know about guns is what direction to point." That said, he tugs the pistol out of his belt, and slightly awkwardly extracts its bullets before slipping them into his pocket." Disarmed, he looks around, finds a wall with no people in it, and lifts his hand to point. Just sorta pointing the gun. There's nothing at all like a stance involved. He'd maybe break a hand shooting like that, or at least drop the gun. But that's what he's here to do, learn. There is a quick nod to Morgan's suggestion, "Mor's got a good point. But you can show me this 'stance' thing you speak of too."

Ariadne grabs two of the guns. She carries them carefully, perhaps a bit too carefully. She moves toward where Grey has joined the others gathered. She approaches with the guns cradled in her arms and hangs near the periphery of those gathered, watching Grey carefully. Her brow quirks as he mentions the audience and her gaze moves to them for just a moment before returning to the small group she is training with.

"I think if I try to fire it'll knock me on my rear end," Jael admits with a wry little smile, shrugging her shoulders a little bit. "I was just planning on watching and learning so — I don't know, I know — but those things are pretty powerful." The little blonde glances back over her shoulder towards Elias, then over towards Cameron and Morgan, and then her gaze goes back to Kai.

A nod is given to Gideon in response, seemingly in agreement to some extent. Elias then smiles to her and gives another nod of his head as he's being called by Kai. "I'd like to learn to use one of those sometime," he says, gesturing to the bow on her back in parting. He then jogs lightly towards Kai, Jael, and Tink. "Hey! Sorry, guys." After closing the distance, he nods to the rest of his group with a weak smile on his lips and prepares to listen to instruction.

Gideon offers Cassandra an oblique look. "Bows have their benefits, as do crossbows… rifles…" She shakes her head, looking very uncomfortable. "Rifles are dangerous weapons, and they cause unforgivable harm." Though she's a warrior, so causing unforgivable harm is probably what she excels at. Then she nods vaguely to Cass. "If you prefer, I can teach you. There are many things that a bow does far better than a gun." When Grey asks for questions, Gideon refrains, giving the delinquent a rather troublesome look. She looks after Elias, offering a simple nod as he departs.

Kai offers one of them out to Jael,"Not if you hold it properly, yeh, it's powerful, and yeh, if you hold it wrong you'll be hating life.. but that doesn't mean it's not a useful thing to know and it's not so bad in single shot mode." she assures the other girl,"The more people that know how, that can help defend, the better chance we have." there's a smile for Eli before she offers him one of the other rifles.

"We'll get there. Gotta make sure what she taught stuck before I go on makin' assumptions." Stone replies back to Morgan's questioning, furrow-browed still, having been put off a bit with Cass's thing, or maybe this is just him slipping into 'serious stuff' mode. Either way, he's gesturing impatiently for the two men to do as he directed, another glance for Cass, but he's going on after, moving forward to the two men, getting into their personal space to redirect their limbs to the weapons, Morgan less so than Cam since he already had some of this training. "Aside from knowing which end to point and who to point it _at_, the stance is the most important thing of shooting in my opinion. You've got to be able to balance the weight of the weapon for a stable firing angle that compensates for the kickback, and do it in a way that lets you be ready to move still so you aren't just a standing target." The words are raised up, horribly painful-sounding, but loud enough to carry to Cass and beyond, clearly meaning to teach his whole lesson that way, whatever it does to his throat if the girl stays over where she is talking to the Grounder. "Morgan, name off the parts of the rifle, starting with the most important please."

"Define important." Morgan says, getting into the stance Kai told him to and holding the butt of the rifle against his shoulder so it doesn't kick back but not so tightly he's got a death grip on it. "Bullets. Without them to go into someone's head, the gun's pretty useless except as a weird club. Then the trigger since that makes the bullet go into someone's head. Site to make firing into someone's head easier. Safety to turn the gun on, firing selector to make the gun go fast. Barrel, to shove into someone's eye if they get too close."

Grey shrugs at Cassandra, "You want to learn to shoot, we'll teach you just like the rest." And then he gestures to Gideon as the Grounder speaks up about bow lessons, although he smirks just a touch at the last point. The look he gets from Gideon causes Grey to grimace a touch, and shrug one shoulder again a little helplessly, "Cat's already out of the bag with the rifles, Gideon. No puttin' it back now." He gestures for Ariadne to give one of the rifles to Fiona if the political wants one, "Gideon, Ariadne. Ariadne, Fiona, Cassandra, and Gideon kom Trikru. Don't know how many folks you know yet. Okay, no questions. Got it. I'll get started then. You never take a shot unless you're usin' the sights. No shootin' from the hip like in the vids." He grabs the pistol grip of his rifle with his right hand, grimacing as he does, then points to the back of the grip-slash-sight, and again to the sight at the end of the barrel, "Line up the post in the middle of the little notch, put that on your target." Even as he's demonstrating the barrel remains pointed toward the ground, "You don't do that, you'll miss your target and waste the round."

The rifle held out her way has Jael eyeing the thing skeptically, and she reaches to take it gingerly from the other girl, trying to get a grip on it. "Uhm," she protests a little awkwardly. But she takes it, and she gives it a curious sort of going over, holding it like she's sure it's going to shatter like glass in her hands.

Fiona blinks as she's offered a rifle. "Grey, I'm not even sure I can lift the thing." she says, rising to her feet. "Morgan told me not to strain." She wants to learn, but well, from the ashen coloring of her face, she's in quite a bit of pain.

"It's a deal then," says wily Cass, upnodding Gideon. "I'm gonna learn what I can from Ol' Pincushion so he doesn't tear his vocal chords. Guess I'll see you after class." Though her own words aren't spoken loudly enough to tear her vocal chords, they are just about an octave shy enough of a stage-whisper that said Pincushion can purposefully hear her. Turning away, she then strolls away and back towards Stone, Cameron, Morgan and the rifles, with the idle pace and demeanour of a cat deigning to condescend itself to human company. She eyes Grey as she passes, but when she arrives at her study group, she makes a silent challenge in her oh-so-teenager stance, hands firmly in her pockets and feet shoulder-width apart, to make it clear that she doesn't need to be there.

Cameron, having not a drop of shame to him, has no personal space or even the vaguest interest in privacy. So he takes invasion of personal space with a casual, cool practicality, paying attention with his eyes dark and intense as limbs are moved here or there to adjust his weight distribution and posture. "Okay this actually just feels better. I see what you're getting at." That said, he listens to Morgan answers, and looks curiously to Stone.

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