Starring:
Date: September 24th, 2009
Summary:
Joel walks into a gun shop/shooting range. Kitty is volunteered, the man reveals his special talents and Kitty is surprised.
"Hit and Miss"
The Patriot Gun Club
Within the confines of the city there are a fair amount of gun enthusiast stores, stores that celebrate the second amendment, and stores that serve as the vanguard for the home defense market. Just one such a store is The Patriot Gun Club and Market just off 20th street in New York. It's front is deceptive, looking like a small store that caters to the occasional passerby, but when one enters they might be surprised by the depth that the club and range has.
In the front when one first enters is the storefront, glass cases, racks of weapons, a large stuffed bear holding a rifle glowers domineering in the center of the room. A small sign around the creature's neck proudly proclaims the right to arm bears and true to its work the large mammal carries a modified hunting rifle. It's a wide area, that opens to either side, one way leading to the offices of the building itself, while the other heads to the stairs that lead down to the firing range itself, carefully protected behind a large industrial door just in case.
Today, having passed by the building many a time in his neighborhood strolls, Joel Nelson finds himself pausing… hesitating at the entrance. For a moment the young man considers the door, considers some of the posters and pamphlets hanging in the window. Another passerby might take a second glance at the fellow as he stands silent for a time, and then finally he makes the decision to enter.
"Jorge, you have got to come on. This is a nice piece." Says a female voice says to the man at the counter. "I'm just saying Kitty, I think it's a little to powerful for you." The older man says to Kitty with a light grin, they must have had this conversation before.
The woman in question is dressed in a tight black tank top and a pair of dark blue jeans, high heeled boots adorn her feet. Not as fashionable as most of her outfits lately but it's still nice.
"Look, have Danny look after the counter and you come down and 'help' me fire it." She smirks, Jorge never lets her shoot the big guns. So overprotective.
"Look Kitty, your dad wouldn't have liked that. And you know it." He says just a bit more seriously. At that, Kitty's expression grows dark momentarily but that is replaced with a pout. "Fine." Jorge says finally.
The bell on the door jangles lightly behind them. This time of day there really aren't that many customers there beside the young woman. So for a few moments Joel stands there, giving the place a once over. He catches the tail end of the discussion between the two, getting a faint smile that flirts at the corner of his mouth. It's just long enough for him to look at Kitty and then consider the weapon she wants to fire. To Joel's credit he doesn't look too taken aback by the caliber of the firearm and the apparent petiteness of the would-be firer.
It's only after they've had their words that Joel reaches the counter, standing patiently and awaiting notice from either Jorge or the man's partner. When he's given it he offers a smile and gestures with a thumb towards the door, "Yeah, hi. Umm, I was interested in the free lesson thing? If that's still on?" Of course he's referencing the old tried and true gimmick that many gun stores have to draw in business.
A man in the middle of his twenties, standing a handful of inches shorter than six foot and with madly tousled dirty blonde hair. He's got that certain vacuous look of his generation, distant blue eyes and a hazy look to them that speaks of long days staring off into the distance.
Currently he's wearing little of remark, just a pair of Chuck Taylor shoes, blue jeans, and a black t-shirt that proclaims his affection for 'DethKlok'.
"Free lesson eh?" Jorge says and then his eyes brighten, they hate doing this sort of stuff. "Why yes we are, Kitty. Take young.." he looks at Jorge for his name. "Downstairs and teach him a thing or two." He says and his look says it all. 'Do it or no fire big gun, missy.' The young CEO blinks and glares at Jorge so Joel can't see.
Then she turns around and runs hand through her hair as her eyes land on Joel. A small smile crosses her lips. "Hi, I'm Kitty." She says and extends her hand.
So all right, he's a slacker with a heavy metal t-shirt on. Sure, Joel's the picture image of the twenty-first century slacker in his Chuck Taylor's and his leather jacket. At least his mother gave him an appreciation for manners and comportment as Joel meets Kitty's gaze evenly, then smiles and takes her hand.
"I'm Joel, Joel Nelson ma'am. And thank you, I trust it won't be too much difficulty. If it is…" He shoots a glance back towards Jorge, cocking an eyebrow, then he looks back at the young woman. "I can come back another time. I don't want to be a trouble." There's a faint accent to his tone, something almost southern.
"Ma'am? You sound like some of the older men that work for me." Kitty chuckles and shakes her head, tone light and kind of vacant, what's she daydreaming about. "It's fine really." She says and gestures towards the door. "Wanna go practice then?" she asks with a raised eyebrow, she begins to lead the way down to the firing range.
Jorge raises an eyebrow at Kitty's sudden change of attitude and Danny, Jorge's son snickers saying, "Ooh la la la." Batting his eyelashes. Jorge swats his son and looks at Kitty. "Don't try to embarrass the girl." He says quietly.
As they reach the steps that head on down and when the big door swings open, Joel holds it open for her so she can precede him. When they're a few further steps on their way he lifts his voice to address Kitty, "To be honest, Miss Kitty, I was thinking it might be smart to, you know, get the hows and whys of things. It might be a bit embarassing to admit, but I've never touched one afore," That might be a small fib, perhaps he means used, or perhaps he means on purpose. "And I only know about as much as like, I've seen on some Hong Kong action flicks."
As they finish their descent and begin to walk along the long aisle that leads past all the seperate booths that look out down the firing range, he pauses for a moment. Eventually he adds, "I trust that doesn't diminish me too much in your eyes." Any seriousness in those words is dismissed by the tone of joviality that they're offered in.
"First off, no Miss. Just Kitty please." She says firmly but with a light smile, then a finger is held up to point towards the stall that she was firing a standard issue 9mm. "Well, the technical side, you can talk to Jorge and Danny about that later. I'm real bad at explaining this stuff, but I can help you with your stance and such.
Kitty takes the gun and lifts it up to aim at the target. "Now, let's see. Watch me." The brunette tilts her head and widens her leg space, "Have to make sure you can support your weight. Especially if you aren't use to the kick of the gun." She says, "Of course as you get better, well the kick won't affect you as much, you can be more relaxed. But for now this is you, all day, got it?" she says and then without further ado. Three shots are fired, two hit the target in the middle and one hits it in the side.
The young gunslinger looks back at Joel with a smile.
"All right, Just Kitty." Har de har har. So maybe he's a touch nervous, as shown by that weak joke and the faint smile he gives. Then, of course, is when she starts firing. He's taken up a place behind her watching, luckily having availed himself of some ear protection. The three shots echo through the room and he blinks a few times looking at the distant target.
As the motor above whirs, bringing the target closer to them, letting them see that precise grouping of Kitty's, Joel turns to her and says. "See, that's kinda crazy to me how you can just…" He gestures with one pale hand towards the target, then back to her. His nose crinkles faintly, not unkindly but perhaps puzzled. He peers at the weapon in her hand and asks, "So the safety's just this switch thing and you just do that whole cocking thing to load it with a round?" Yeah, he's that much of a noob.
After going through the process of showing him the safety and how to cock the gun and fire again. Kitty hands it over, "Ok now just don't shoot yourself in the foot alright? I'll be back in a sec." she says and before Joel can say anything, the woman is swinging her hips, walking away back up the stairs for a moment or two. Her heels clicking on the hardwood floor.
Once he's left to his own devices, Joel examines the weapon he's been given. It's probably a bit of time before Kitty hears it fire again. The young man takes his time examining it, letting his thoughts drift in various directions both philosophically and practically. He considers the mechanism of the weapon, the possibilities of taking human life, the way the thing smells, the weight of the weapon. It all weighs a bit heavily on his thoughts.
A handful of moments later, with the target whirred back to the end of the firing range, he takes stance. Standing there, Joel aims the pistol towards the target. He stops for an instant, looks at the gun, then retakes his stance. There's the sharp report of it firing, the kick of it, and then the visible evidence of his action as a small hole appears in the top right side of the target. It's a hit, but not on the silhouette. If it was a person he'd been shooting at then he would have barely missed their shoulder.
The young man's brow knits, furrowed in concentration, thought. He takes aim and that's when his ability kicks it. It's as if his brain automatically calculates all known factors, realizes the mass of the weapon, the bullet, the recoil… until in a snap instant it becomes a thoughtless process.
The weapon fires again, this time the shot square in the center of the target. A perfect shot, precisely placed. Despite matters in his life, despite the realization, he can't help but take an element of pleasure in it. A small 'heh' slips from him. Without preamble he fires several more times, each shot precisely through that center hole, leaving no further mark on the target. His lip curls wryly as he realizes this.
Joel takes a moment to lean back, looking out of the firing range's booth, peering down the way as if making sure nobody else is around. Not finding any, he looks back at the target and this time doesn't even take stance. He fires from the hip, the weapon roaring a handful of times. He tilts his head to the side and then the gun as well, assuming the 'gangsta' stance. Several more shell casings hit the floor as he fires at the target. This continues, foolishly, goofily, until the slide snaps back empty.
"Having fun?" a light chuckle is behind Joel, Kitty had inched up behind him as he started to shoot the target. "Let's see how you did for a first time-." She blinks and looks back again. "You shot it in the middle.. multiple times." She breaths.
The target is brought forward and Kitty stares at the whole as it hangs in front of her face. "Impressive." She says softly. Then a look is given to Joel, "So you lied, you've done this before." Arms are folded over her chest. "Because either you are extremely lucky.. or maybe you just have the gift of being a good shot."
Luckily the weapon is empty, for when she talks he jumps a little. He turns around to look at her, blinks, then looks back towards the target as it whirs in to be considered. His jaw tenses, and there's a faintly worried look to his eyes as he murmurs, "Ummm? Wha? No, nah, that was… uhh." He rubs the back of his neck, "I only hit it like twice, I missed like all the others, went all over the place." Sure, that's how he's trying to explain so many of the bullets going through the same hole, sure it's widened a bit so for sure at least two or three went through it. But then again, maybe she was watching. "You know what they say, heh, even a stopped clock…"
Eyebrows lift, with a shake of her head she takes the gun from Joel and takes another clip. Loading it and handing it back over. "Again." She says faintly and turns to look at the target, behind Joel. Her head is tilted but her eyes are centered on the target.
"Just relax, try it again." She says to the man and smiles at him. "It looks like you got the hang of it."
"Ummm," Joel takes the firearm back and looks at her. He turns back towards the target and if she could see his face straight on she'd definitely see that strong 'gulp' he takes. There's that stance, he remembers to take it this time, he brings the weapon up and draws a bead on the target. "Ok." He lets his breathing even out, then he fires again, the pistol bucking in his hand. A few more shots are taken, and this time… none of them hit the target, instead they go into the thick cement back wall kicking up little puffs of dust. Of course… the grouping on those shots seems pretty good… despite being off target.
A frown crosses her lips but she shrugs and smiles before Joel can turn around. "I guess, you had some luck. Right?" she says and grins, Kitty takes a moment to stare at the target one more time before shaking her head, freeing her thoughts.
"Try again." She says and leans against the wall. "And.. aim for the target. For real this time." She teases lightly with a smile.
For a moment as he looks at her he considers lying, considers keeping up the charade. But he heaves a small sigh, he's no good at it, the whole lying thing. He just doesn't have a face for it, and so what, so he has a talent for this sort of thing, is that something to be ashamed of? With those thoughts bouncing around in his head he turns and retakes his stance, though it's perhaps for show. He takes aim at the target and fires off three bullets in rapid succession, each one striking the target in dead center and causing little 'splats' of paper to explode with each pull of the trigger. He sighs and looks distantly at the target, then says almost resignedly, "Yeah." Nothing more than that, just yeah.
Wait..
Thought he couldn't shoot..
"Wow." Yeah that's all, wow. Kitty strides forward, standing next to Joel she leans in to examine the target, then it comes sliding up. "Well, that is a neat trick. You can just, aim and fire. And you don't miss? At least not unless you are trying to miss, right?"
Kitty doesn't know if she is thinking too deeply that this man has an ability or if Joel is just a natural very good shot. "Because.. I can hit it dead center.. but I didn't start out like that."
"I uh," Joel grimaces a bit and places the gun flat on the small shelf of the gun range's booth. "I used to play lots of Time Crisis?" Ok it's a weak reason or excuse. He takes a deep breath, frowning distantly, then he looks back and meets her gaze. "It's just…" The young man reaches back and rubs his neck, almost embarassed. "I went to the doc, and he said there could be like, a tumor." Ok that's not entirely true, sure he asked about the possibility and it wasn't entirely ruled out, but not like they did X-Rays.
"Pressing on my brain and stuff. Causes weird spatial things." Then he looks back towards the target, back to her. "I dunno." His conversation is truly gifted.
"Spatial things? Weird." Kitty says and looks ahead. Her eyes flick towards the gun and then towards Joel. "How long ago did you learn about this?" she inquires and looks away. She just stumbled before a man with an amazing ability.
"I'm sorry, did you also say you have a tumor as in, you have cancer?" she frowns and looks a little sad. Cancer, that's not cool.
"Well," Joel looks uncomfortable. It's not necessarily something you want to admit to someone, that you're a hypochondriac and talked to a doctor once and suggested the possibility to him when all he did was prescribe some headache medicine to you. "I don't know, I talked to a doc and it was just a possibility for various weirdness, but you know, no insurance and all that. Woulda cost a billion dollars. So I dunno."
It's with that smooth answer that he shifts into an equally adept transition, "So anyways, umm, thanks for like, the lesson. They're still pretty scary and all." Meaning the guns, naturally. "But at least I know what's what in case zombies attack or something."
.
"Right.." Kit says slowly and looks to Joel, she begins to walk back up the stairs, shaking her head before Joel can see. "You'll get used to them, if you practice with them more. You.. already have the skills. Now you have to rid yourself of that fear." It's said matter of factly.
Kitty pushes open the door to the main room, Danny has a look of, 'Done already?'. Jorge isn't in sight, maybe he went to the back room.
And there's Joel, right along behind her only a few steps trailing. He's zipping up his jacket and gives a nod towards Danny while offering him a small wave. "Yeah, she was really helpful. Answered all my questions and stuff, pretty crazy the whole gun thing, yup." He takes a few steps into the main room, looking the place over and perhaps pointedly avoiding Kitty's gaze in case he espies the suspicion he's sure is there. He nods towards Danny, "I'm not sure if I'm like, ready to buy now, since, like… well I need to sleep on it I think."
"You can always come back." Danny says simply and shrugs, he could care less. Kitty is the one that has a thoughtful expression on her face as she stares at Joel. But she doesn't say anything, not as Joel prepares to leave, actually. "Well, nice meeting you." She says softly and brushes a strand of hair out of her eyes.
Danny looks from Joel to Kitty with a raised eyebrow, it's obvious something weird happened between them. Kitty flicks her gaze to Danny and shakes her head a little.
"And you!" The response given a little too enthusiastically, as if he was only too glad to get out of there and to be so dismissed. With that said, Joel makes for the door, opening it again with the jangle of the bell accompanying. Once he's out on the street he starts to walk down the way towards his apartment, shaking his head and scowling at himself for the foolishness. But hey, at least no harm done.