[OPEN] Ximilia Station | April Catch-All

[shadysided]

CHARACTERS: Ziggy and you!
LOCATION: misc. locations on the station.
DATE: April's resting time aboard the Ximilia!
CONTENT: Ziggy unwinds and does a little target practice. And watches Disney Channel movies.
WARNINGS: gun use is probably the most of it.

I. Welcome Back | Teleportation Area / Infirmary

[Ziggy returns to the Ximilia a bit shaken, much like she had after Badrock — not quite so traumatically, not with any lives taken by her hands, but it had been close. She's relieved in knowing she hadn't shot anyone dead, but there was the memory of falling into that chasm and seeing the fabled Long Cloak: she'd thought she was done for, and she had squeezed her eyes shut and had waited for that to be it.

... But she's still here.

Still alive.

She lingers around the teleportation and infirmary room, just to make sure everyone else is okay. Really, she just scraped up her hands and knees, so a few bandaids and an ice pack for her sizable black eye was enough for her. She stops long enough to help apply some antiseptic to someone's gashed arm, making a little face at them.]

Oh, don't be a baby. It just stings for a second.

II. Target Practice | Armory / Shooting Range

[The days that follow are her remembering that she really should continue working on her aim; she's not half bad, not after spending a huge chunk of time in Taeum practicing in the room with all the glass breakables, but there's always room for improvement. She gets herslef a decent holster for her hip and a typical handgun and spends a few hours a day shooting at those little moving targets in the distance.

Aim lower, account for the ricochet.

She recollects Peter's lessons, because despite how it may seem, she's better at following instruction than it seems.

... It just usually depends on who is instructing and what they're asking of her.

And how stupid they sound.

At one point, she picks up a — shotgun? It's kind of huge. She's never shot a gun this big before, and she's clearly trying to decide whether it's worth knowing how.]

III. A Day in the Life | Common Living Area / Item Drop Areas

[But it's not all grim, miserable training. She does stay in her room a terribly unhealthy amount of time still, but people may see her sneak out and actually be among her peers from time to time. The communal area with the couches is her favorite place to linger around — she likes to see what new books are left in the item drops, and this time she considers a book called First Blood, with a man running on the background of a red, fiery sky. She scopes some shirts and decorative things that look a bit like home. Which is a step from her leaving her room terribly barren, right?

She also practices the art of... becoming a fan of something.

It had started one night where she'd borrowed one of those fancy modern flat pad screens, or whatever they're called. There were a few selections to pick from on it, and she happened upon one called High School Musical. One of the few movies on there that had a teenaged cast, she's pretty sure (well, the characters definitely are teenagers, unless some idiot named it High School Musical for literally no reason). And the rest is history: she settles in, wrapped in a blanket like some old beggar woman, and watches High School Musical.

Anyone wandering by will notice she's too enraptured with it to pay them any mind.

Here's a visual of what one may witness:]



[Oh dear.]

IV. Wildcard / Make Your Own Prompt!

[Hit me up on simpledog if you'd like, I'm open to pretty much anything! Starters, adjusted prompt stuff, whatever floats your boat. ;)]

Comments

iii.

[construing]

[ the voice comes from above ziggy's head. one upside-down superhero crouches on the ceiling, eyes on the screen. how long has she been there? noncommittal noises. ]

I forgot how catchy this song is.

[shadysided]

[Ziggy proceeds to have a heart attack. As one does when caught lusting after fictional characters at age 16. She jumps in shock, throws her blanket off, and quickly fights to regain a particularly noncommitted aura about her, even though it's completely clear that she's committed to this franchise.]

Uh! Yeah, it's — fun. It's a fun song.

The movie's alright.

[construing]

[ oh, yeah, someone has her head in the game.

letting ziggy cling to her "too cool for zac efron" facade, gwen swings down to sit on the armrest. ]

You got the second one?

[shadysided]

[... Oh...

She's trying not to look excited at the prospect. Because she's a tough, traumatized young woman who is hardly a child that enjoys normal kid shit anymore. Obviously. This is just stuff for teenagers to swoon over. Not her, though. Noooope.

...]

There's more than one?

[construing]

[ gwen, emulating lady gaga re: poker faces, holds up three fingers. ]

It's a trilogy. Plus a spin-off with Sharpay and Ryan.

[shadysided]

God, those two idiots.

[She rolls her eyes, because Sharpay is waaaay too close to the idiots who tormented her. In the spirit of fairness, she doesn't think she'd burn people with a cigarette lighter, though.

... Maybe.

But ugh, stop making her show she's invested.]

..... Is it a good trilogy?

[It's not gonna end with them all getting eaten by monsters or something insane, is it?]

[construing]

[ non 😌 ]

It's fun. First movie's the best, in my opinion, the songs for the second are unmatched, and the third wraps it all up in a nice bow.

[ gwen makes a little moue. ]

I might have shed a whole tear watching them all graduate, and if you tell anyone, I'll stick you somewhere tall. [ reaching over, she playfully ruffles ziggy's long, red hair. ]

[shadysided]

[Bah! Humbug! She swats at the hand in her hair, but it's delayed and not much of an attempt to really keep her at bay. She's got her street cred to keep intact, though, obviously.]

If you mess up my hair, I'll take the risk!

[Her hair is already messy, it's fine.

Watch her struggle through the next bit.]

Maybe we could... watch it sometime...

[construing]

Let me check my calendar. [ a moment's pause as she checks her nonexistent calendar like the annoying older…something she is. ] What do you know, my calendar's wide open.

[ gwen avoids the hair this time, but nudges ziggy's shoulder. ]

We can probably binge them. Stock up on snacks and sodas, claim the simulation room, make it into an actual movie theater.

[ keep running commentary throughout the movie. throw popcorn at sharpay. enjoy the gloriousness that is zac efron having a mental breakdown on a golf course in the middle of the desert on an imax screen as it was actually meant to be witnessed. ]

Target Practice

[singlelogbridge]

Do you think the size really makes a difference? [It's probably a bad idea to suddenly start speaking to someone holding a gun that big, but what can he say, Wei Wuxian lives his life on the edge. He's wandered up to the range behind her with his bow and arrows on his back, and he pauses now to admire the shotgun in her hands.]

I'm certainly no expert, we don't have these where I'm from, but the small ones seemed sufficient if aimed well enough. [A shot to the head or chest seemed fatal enough, he means.] But there must be a difference, right? Why else make one so big?

[Grinning, he shrugs a shoulder, vaguely motioning to his bow.]

I'm afraid I still prefer the old fashioned way.

[shadysided]

Well... I mean... I'm pretty sure a rocket launcher is a lot worse than a slingshot.

So yeah, I'd say it probably matters.

[She pops open the shotgun, picking up the big shells that apparently go into them; she's seen these guns in person a few times, and she's seen a ton of movies, so it's easy to load it. Or at least likely load it properly.]

Old-fashioned's not such a bad thing.

... These kinds of guns, they're made to pretty much kill whatever it hits.

People don't survive shotguns as much as puny little handguns.

[singlelogbridge]

Ah, I don't know the difference between any of those. [He offers with a low chuckle, eyeing the shells she's loading into it. Itachi had shown him how to load and use a handgun, and the mechanism on this one seems a little different if similar enough in concept even if the shells are considerably bigger.]

But it makes sense of course. Bigger gun, bigger ammo, bigger bang. Very efficient. [Frighteningly so.]

Where I'm from, the primary weapon that people use are swords. I seem to be in the minority here though. Do you use guns at your home, Miss Ziggy? [He trades "Laoshi" for "miss" this time around and the delivery is entirely sincere.]

[shadysided]

[She huffs a laugh.]

God, don't call me Miss Ziggy. I feel old. Or like I'm a Muppet. [No, she's not gonna explain what a muppet is. Instead, she cocks her head to the side and huffs:] Just Ziggy's fine, I promise. I'm not gonna, like... greatly dishonored or anything.

We have guns, though, yeah. A lot of people in my town are gun-crazy; I know my dad had one or two hidden away somewhere before he left. But I've never really bothered with them until now.

... Which — seeing as how the missions are almost always dangerous, it's high time to learn how all of them work...

[singlelogbridge]

[He makes a note to ask Gwen what a muppet is and laughs, inclining his head in acquiescence as he makes a considering sound. Reaching into his robes, he pulls out that same pouch she might remember from their target practice in Taeum.

And from that pouch, he pulls the same bow she'd been using then too.]

I know this isn't as compact, but I grabbed it for you. If you really want to learn, I was serious about teaching. [He grins.]

[shadysided]

I'd like to learn. Knowing how any of this works could help in the future, right?

[But, uh.

As she approaches to take the bow, she can't help but stare owlishly the pouch.]

How are you doing that?

[singlelogbridge]

[Beaming at her answer, it takes him a second to realize what she means. His eyes drop to the pouch and then understanding washes over him. He'd had a similar conversation with Peter not too long ago. Such items are common in his world but really only among cultivators, so it's understandable that others might not be so familiar.]

Here. [He passes the bow to her and then holds up the bag for her to see.]

This is called a qiankun pouch. [Since it's otherwise empty at the moment, he flips it inside out for her to see. It has the appearance of a regular pouch except for the Chinese characters sewn into the lining.]

It's a regular cloth bag, but these characters—[He points them out] extend the bag's holding capacity. [He turns the bag right side again and then pulls something else out of his robes instead. This time it's a flimsy rectangle of paper with more Chinese characters and symbols painted onto it.]

Where I'm from, the correct combination of characters like these creates a sort of...spell, if you will. The ones on the bag make it bigger. This one—[He grins] make it do this! [And he tosses it into the air. The talisman explodes into a harmless and rather pretty display of butterfly shaped lights that dance in the air like sparklers.]

[shadysided]

A — qiankun pouch...

[She looks inside of it, eyes a bit wide.]

Like the Doctor's TARDIS. I saw it on the inside once; it's usually, like, just some phone booth.

[Sorry, that's probably all just gibberish. But she takes time away from staring at the bag to watch with some rare delight at the sight of the bright butterflies fluttering on the air.]

How do you learn it?

target practice

[oiorpata]

[ andy hasn't really been to the armory much since she's been back; her collection is solid, and she hasn't had much of an urge for anything new just yet. but she gets curious to see what everyone else gets up to, so even if she doesn't stay long, she pokes into the training rooms on and off. ]

[ today she finds ziggy hauling up a shotgun and does not think anything of it, though maybe she should. she already watched this girl fire a gun though, it's fine. ]

I feel like most people use those for hunting now. [ now is relative. ] You ever handle one before?

[shadysided]

Oh, hey Andy.

[She offers a little nod of her head, still trying to handle that shotgun with extra care; sure, people usually assume a teenager with a gun is a pretty bad mix, but she's nothing if not hyper-aware of where she's pointing that thing.]

No, uh — I've seen people shoot them, but I never really... cared that much.

Kind of changes when you're always fighting for your life.

[oiorpata]

These missions always seem to end up that way. [ the whole fighting for your life thing. andy is not personally in that camp often, but the fact that she's actually had to be careful for herself twice now is odd enough. ]

You want me to show you how to hold it? [ she assumes ziggy is gonna use it regardless of anyone trying to argue with her, so it's probably better for her learn how to do so safely. ]

[shadysided]

It's a fun pattern. Love being in peril.

[The dryness of the reply competes with the dryness of the Mojave Desert.

But after a moment, she steps back, carefully holding out the shotgun.]

Uh — yeah. That would be great, honestly. I figure the more weapons I know how to use, the better off my chances are of not getting killed off tragically.

[oiorpata]

[ andy barely resists the urge to laugh, not so much at the content of the sentence so much as the tone. #relatable. ] I'd say maybe there'll be a nice orb one day, but I'd rather be surprised than disappointed.

[ sorry she isn't very reassuring. ]

[ but she reaches out for the gun and easily lifts it immediately into a proper hold, like she's barely thinking about it. ] I find like this is easiest. How does the weight feel to you?

[shadysided]

[It's fine, cool soldier lady, she isn't very reassuring either.

Forced indifference to tragic circumstance is how she survived portions of her childhood.

Or something.]

It feels kind of heavy? But Maybe I'm just used to the little peashooters.

... Shovels are pretty heavy, though; I've used a shovel or two in my day.

[oiorpata]

[ how children are "supposed" to be has changed so dramatically so many times, and while andy always finds herself looking for them and looking after them, she often does not hesitate to hand them a weapon either. ]

No, they can be a little heavy, especially if you're not used to them. That's probably what you should do first - get yourself used to the weight.

[ a beat. ] If you like a shovel, you should try something with a real blade sometime. They never run out of ammo.

[shadysided]

Something with a real blade, huh...?

[Oh dear, she's deeply considering this option.]

What kind of blade would you recommend?