Frances Barton | Hawkeye (hotshot_hawkeye) wrote in marvel_nextgen,
@ 2013-03-09 16:43:00

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Magic and firearms: How could this possible go wrong? (Martin)
She wasn't entirely sure how she had made a deal with the little sorcerer Martin to teach him guns, but Frances liked to made good on promises. Oh no wait, it was for the magic arrows that had saved her ass, that was it. Anyway, she had to be make good and since no one was trying to kill/enslave/genderswap/veganify the world (yet, it was only ten in the morning), today was a decent day to do so.

Frances was at the outdoor shooting range, at the safety line with a few different examples for Martin and decided to warm up a little with a handgun and stationary target while she waited.

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magic_hands
2013-03-10 01:51 am UTC (link)

To say he was excited was an understatement. He was nearly bouncing actually and could barely sleep the night before. Half his teammates it seems used guns or similar weapons and he just could not for the life of him understand the appeal. Only solution? Learn how to use one. Maybe then he'd get it?

Either way, it was hard to get people to agree to teach you when you didn't exactly scream social maturity. Which is why he'd asked Frances on their very first meeting and now finally he'd get to learn!

Martin appears in a whoosh of blue, teleporting in with a duffel bag in tow. He'd found it somewhere in HQ and that's how people in movies stored weapons right? This one was full of arrows though, magic arrows of course.

"I'm here!" As if that entrance wasn't obvious enough. She gets the usual friendly hat tip of course.

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-10 02:21 am UTC (link)

Frances put the handgun on safety and shouldered the headphones off her ears when she saw the poof on the peripheral. Looked like her student had shown up.

"Hey, on time. Well done, Pip," she asked and then eyed the duffle bag. "You didn't borrow Kelly's guns, did you?" Because being on the business end of that one would certainly leave a mark. Shrugging, she turned around and picked up a pair of safety goggles and glasses. "Unless you can do a spell to protect your eyes and muffle the bang, you need these."

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magic_hands
2013-03-10 02:31 am UTC (link)

"Nope, I don't touch her guns. I don't think it'd be a good idea to. But you know Kelly?" As he talks he hops off his hovering disc and with a wave of his hand the duffel bag unzips to show a pile of arrows. "Red ones are the usual fire arrows, white are the freeze ones, umm...oh yes, the blue and orange ones are portal arrows, and anything else is firework arrows! I threw a few in because those are fun to make!"

Martin places his hat careful back on the disc, which had shrunk to be a good hat stand size, and walks up to Frances, bowing his head a little so she could the headphones on him then the goggles. Safer that way he figures.

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-10 04:37 pm UTC (link)

"We met at Anya's Superbowl party, then had post-game drinks," she nods and then peeks into the duffel bag. Alright more magic arrows! "Wow, guess I don't need to be as stingy with them on the field. I've been keeping then for Rocks-Fall-Everyone-Dies moments. Thanks!" She's going to have fun with the portal ones, she can already plot pranks for the mansion...

Carefully, she put the goggles on him and the headphones before moving the mouth piece out and clicking them on, red light confirming that. She put hers on to talk to him. "Okay, if lights and an alarm go off, just sit tight, someone in the field has an unsafe situation. Don't go investigate. See that yellow line? Stay behind it. Never a point a gun at anyone or up in the air. Better to point into the dirt, safety on or off. And unless you have your finger on the trigger to shoot, safety is always on." She pointed at the gun in the safety box. "Alright Pip. How much do you know about guns? "

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magic_hands
2013-03-10 05:59 pm UTC (link)

"I'm glad she didn't blow you up," he says earnestly, because with Kelly that was apparently a thing according to him. "I don't think the firework ones would be too useful for those moments but you could try! At least then you'd really go out with a bang?" Anyway, he found making magic arrows fun, and good practice for things really.

The headgear wiggles a little as he uses TK to adjust it a bit before nodding at her instructions, silly as some may be. Really, don't go investigate? How was that fun at all? But oh well, he had promised to follow all her instructions.

Martin makes an O shape with one hand to indicate zero. "Nothing. Except they're good for shooting and hitting people and that you should take good care and clean them a lot. And something about jennings arms or something being bad, not sure." The latter two points he'd obviously vaguely heard from the merc sisters on his team.

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-10 07:26 pm UTC (link)

"Same here, it would have put a dampener on the night." She gave him a good-natured eye-roll at the pun, groaning as well. "Besides, the fireworks are for fun times. Or waking Orlen up in the morning. Which is a fun time too, I suppose."

She gave him a very stern look. Don't go investigate. And don't bamf into anyone's line of sight.

Well, good to start with a basic cover then. "Okay well," she pulled the bullet out of the chamber and held it before him. "So a bullet is basically powered by a firework, all the energy pushing the metal slug toward what you point it to. Faster the bullet the farther it can go, or harder it hits. Some bullets are tweaked to be hollow for speed or designed with a payload, but the mechanics are the same."

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magic_hands
2013-03-10 10:26 pm UTC (link)

"And I wouldn't be able to blow her up for blowing you up because she likes that stuff," he pouts slightly. "Oh, that's a good one! You have the best ideas." Cue earnest nodding, Frances really did have great ideas. Though her very stern look gets a slight hmph and pout out of him, though it's clear he's already resigned to following the rules here.

Martin listens carefully to her explanations, nodding along and mentally trying to think of similar spells. "Hmm, it's not as colourful a firework it should be but okay. What sort of payload do they have? And which are we going to try?"

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-11 03:49 pm UTC (link)

She smiles and bows to his praise, not very contrite on egging on the little sorcerer with pranks and plans. "Why thank you, Mister Baum, you say the nicest things."

"Exactly, same as a fire work, only function over form. The entire point of a gun is to direct the explosion and the bullet, and what makes them special is how they do it." Oh let's see, there's dirty bullets that leave radioactive payloads, or can punch through a tank, or hollow ones that break apart instead of perforate." She gestures to the shooting range, where three other tables are set up. "I got the hand-gun, an automatic rifle and my baby Seraphina set up."

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magic_hands
2013-03-11 03:56 pm UTC (link)

He gives her a smile and a small polite two fingered salute with a gloved hand, not having his hat available for his usual hat tip.

"Which bullets do those have? And who's Seraphina?" Who knew there were that many types of bullets? Here he'd thought there was only one type but different sizes, like in the movies. Well now guns were looking more interesting than they'd been a few minutes earlier. Though obviously still not as cool as magic.

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-12 11:45 am UTC (link)

"We can't use the more exotic types on the range, it's a waste and some of the chemicals will damage the forest we shoot into. Just bigger versions of the handgun's, and hollow to get better range," she explains and holds up the automatic's ammo, a fingerlength and pointier cartridge compared to the handgun's snubnosed style. She winks, though, about Seraphina. "Patience, she's coming up."

"So what makes different guns special is how they throw those guys and how well. A handgun like this has ten shots before you reload and a good shot can fire them all in less than 15 seconds. Really, it's better for when you have a target and it's close to mid-range than other options." She picked up the handgun and turned on her spot's red light to alert the range of a live gun before lining up on the target. Firing all ten, the noise was easily muffled and target was properly perforated in the center and she unloaded the magazine before turning off the light.

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magic_hands
2013-03-12 01:56 pm UTC (link)

Martin couldn't help but be glad that unless one used ingredients for a spell, it was hard to have magic practice be a waste. But oh well, this is how gun people practiced, he'd try it. "Aww, they sounded fun but okay. You name your guns?"

He prepared himself for the noise, already used to it without headphones because of fighting alongside some of his teammates, but this was quieter than expected. A pleasant surprise though. "Whoa, you're fast. So what do you use if someone is far away? Or...mid to far? And what's the light for? Just to say you're shooting something?"

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-12 07:06 pm UTC (link)

"Yup, gives a stronger connection between it and me, gives it a personality and even moods with some. Just like with cars," she nodded. "Does the top hat have a name?"

She smiled and reloaded a fresh magazine in the gun. "Thanks, your technique kinda drops when you go that fast, but lots of practice doing double taps helps with speed. And yes, a light on is the warning that metal's flying so watch out!" Offering the gun handle-forward she tilted her head. " Mid to far needs a bigger bullet or stronger boom to get it across. Do you want to levitate this and try? A hand gun has less kick than the automatic rifle."

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magic_hands
2013-03-13 02:21 am UTC (link)

"Oh no!" He looks truly baffled at the idea. "It's special to me, I don't think any name would fit it!"

Martin stared at the handgun curiously and beamed with excitement as it was offered to him. "Okay!" The gun wiggles out of her hand and levitates up to his eye level, barrel-end toward the target of course, and he goes to stand where she had. "Do I stand here? What do I do?" The gun itself hovers ever so slightly while it waits and rotates and moves around a bit as Martin tests out how good a TK handle he has on it.

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-13 04:24 pm UTC (link)

She walks around and then pantomimes the pose she had taken. "About this far away from you, and brace for the kick back by not locking anything up." In case he will feel the recoil. "You want the nubbin sight on the tip of muzzle to line up with the two sights on the back and the target itself so you know you are aiming right." She hits the safety light and waves at him. "Take your time and you've got up to ten shots. Breathe, aim at the target and when you feel confident, gently squeeze the trigger until it fires."

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magic_hands
2013-03-13 08:45 pm UTC (link)

He studied her pose and tried copying it, except the outstretched arms don't hold onto the gun but instead let it levitate in between his palms. Hopefully it'd give him better control.

There's a minute of squinting and carefully lining the sights up while trying to take out that slight bounce in the gun that came from hovering, before he holds his breath, steadies the gun in the air again and pulls his index finger back as if pulling an imaginary trigger. The gun goes off, recoils a surprising amount and causes the boy to jump back in surprise and pull the trigger again. "Frances! I hit something! Look!" He practically beamed as the gun gestured to where he'd shot.

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-13 10:26 pm UTC (link)

Frances watched the little sorcerer, the target wasn't going anywhere and she wanted to be sure he could handle it. He did take his time, she admired that, and waited until he felt the shot. She tried to not snicker when he jumped, smirking faintly. "Well done, you didn't even hit yourself in the forehead," she praised before turning to squint at the target. "Hey, you did! It would be a grazing or arm wound, but you did hit the target!" She turned and clapped at him for a job well done.

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magic_hands
2013-03-13 11:59 pm UTC (link)

"I hit something!" He literally bounced at the praise and both hands shot into the air in a cheer. Unfortunately the excitement and cheering cause errant sparks to come from his gloves and the mage jumps, swipes his hat from its little disc stand and bats or catches all the stray magic sparks with it. "Oops," he says with a sheepish look. "But that was good right? I hit something! Can I try again? I want to try and get more than a graze!"

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-14 11:13 am UTC (link)

Frances laughs at the spectacle, since she was more worried about the gun accidentally becoming enchanted, and helps herd the side effects back to him. "We might just have a magician slash sharp shooter on our hands," she teases with a proud smile. "Reminds me of that Push movie, actually." She waves to the poster for him to continue. "Why not? You've got nine more shots. Now, remember your shot drifted a little to one side, compensate just shifting the other way. Drift is normal, so everyone needs to get a feel for their gun. The recoil won't surprise you as much either so you know how firmly to hold."

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magic_hands
2013-03-15 06:41 am UTC (link)

"What movie is that? Are we going to watch it after Lord of the Rings?" As he speaks he gets into the pose again, looking sort of like a dramatic crystal ball reading if anything, and lines up the sights again, aiming the other way just slightly, still taking his time. This time the shot goes wide on the other side, barely skimming the poster and the mage huffs. That just wouldn't do. He abandons the dramatic future reading pose to instead fold his hands behind his back and stand directly behind the gun and lean forward to squint down the sights, looking like he was surveying some antique. The recoil nearly causes the handle to smack him in the nose and he barely scrambles back in time. "Guns are mean," he grumbles and marches back to his position, mage on the warpath.

Determined to get this right he changes stances again, making a handgun shape with his hand, in a similar way he'd shot off mystic bolts before and lined up his index finger with the sights again. "Pew!" No mystic bolt this time but the gun goes off and he leaps into the air with glee. "Frances! Frances! Look! It's right by his head! I almost got him!" Granted, he'd been aiming at the guy's chest but...details.

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-15 11:36 am UTC (link)

"One where people have super powers and have to go underground, telepaths, precogs, and lead looks like Johnny Storm, like forty years ago. He sucks with his TK during more of the movie, but there's a gun fight with floating guns." She tries to not laugh too much when over-dramatic doesn't help. At least he isn't tilting the damn gun sideways. And then he starts over-correcting in new and interesting ways, but Frances waits for him to suss out his technique.

She claps, which is stupid with the headphones, but still. "Hey no one does perfectly the first, heck, dozen times. But you are hitting the target paper so I'm game. Remember to line down the sights and wait until you're sure you want to pull the trigger."

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magic_hands
2013-03-15 11:56 am UTC (link)

"Is it good? Are we going to watch it? You can laugh at the gun fight and I can complain about the TK!" He goes back into his hand-sign gun pose and lines up the sights again. It's taking a lot of concentration to keep the gun levitating steady and not hovering or moving much. His TK wasn't the most precise, he was getting better but there was a reason he didn't like eating in front of most people still.

He takes his time each of his shots, mostly for steadying the gun and concentration reasons, it was a whole different ball game when you couldn't actually touch the gun. Granted, he'd probably never use this skill because if he could float a gun he could shoot a mystic bolt instead. But it was the principle of the thing.

His next shots do generally hit the paper, a few grazing. For his last two shots he goes over to retrieve his hat, perching it on top of his head, on top of the headphones. It looked silly but it was his lucky magic hat so silliness would be tolerated for the luck. Another deep breath and Martin lined up his shot again, taking a full minute to actually get the gun steady to his satisfaction. Apparently the hat does work, since his next shot grazes the side while the final one is only what could be called an appendix shot. Okay fine, didn't hit a vital organ but it was a hit.

Martin pretty much floats in the air during his victory jump. "I hit him! Did you see? I hit him!" He practically beams at Frances, looking happier than he had in months. "It counts right?"

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hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-15 03:42 pm UTC (link)

"Of course. It's an oldie-but-goodie for eating popcorn and not thinking too hard." She watches as he settles back down and once he wasn't over-gesturing, he improves. Very good, it's a sign he's paying a attention and trying to get better. She doesn't even comment on the hat addition, she had her lucky talismans for hard missions, after all. Rather, the fact the hat stays on his head during it all makes her certain there's a magical stick-on spell or something.

She beamed back at him as he danced in victory. "Well done, he's not going anywhere now. I say it counts, he's hit, isn't he?" she offers and smiles in pride. "Great job for a first timer!"

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	magic_hands 2013-03-15 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	"Thank you!" He's still absolutely beaming after his round of shooting. "What's next? Do we blow him up?" It was a valid question actually. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

hotshot_hawkeye
2013-03-15 11:33 pm UTC (link)

"In a way," she admitted and took back the small gun. "So that was for close-combat and precision, right? This-" She lifted the M16 automatic rifle for him to see. "Is for when you need to cover a wide range with a lot of bullets." Coming up to the line, she sighted the rifle comfortably. "What you lose for in accuracy," she started and then squeezed the trigger, a hailstorm of sound and flash fire. The legs of the target picture vanished as the bullets punch-cut the paper off. "You make for volume and sound."

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	magic_hands 2013-03-15 11:43 pm UTC (link)
	Martin's ecstatic grin slowly turns more into one with a barely contained mischievous excitement to it. Precision was not his forte. Range and that sort of destruction? Much more his thing. "I'm not the best in precision anyway," he grinned. "I like this one!" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)