002 [Action-allllll over the place.]

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

[Scenario A: Morning]

[Anyone who decides to come into the cafeteria on this fine morning may just find Lightning at a table near the back, an empty plate near a notepad as she jots down notes. Anyone who gets close will see that it's a lesson plan for her classes, but there's a second smaller pad half hidden under it with words like "doubles?" and what look to be tactical plans for...something. It's all in abbreviations, making it ridiculously hard to make out, and it's unlikely that she'll talk about that one.]

[Scenario B: WTR 301 Class; 1400 to 1500 hours]

[Good afternoon, class. Feel free to walk in on your pink-haired teacher doing some last minute gun checks on that row of handguns you can see on a low counter, while a few meters behind there's another counter with cans of varying height and width. Once everyone's in the class and seemingly ready for this, Lightning will gesture over to the cans.]

You'll be shooting these today. The fewer shots you use to take them all down, the better.

[No nonsense tone is get; Instructor Farron isn't playing games, but...then again...when does she play games?]

[Scenario C: after class]

[With classes over and notes attended to until late in the night, anyone who finds their way to the Quad will find Lightning sitting on a bench, performing routine maintenance on one of these, seemingly without a care to the world around her. Feel free to approach and ask her just what kind of weapon that is, or to just stare. Though that second option is likely to get you an odd look, she won't bite.

No promises on the lack of linefacing, though. She does that a lot.]

[ooc: interact where you please~ just stick which scenario in the subject line and you're good to go!]

Comments

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

[Not a ton to go on, but Lightning's worked on less and found her target. Of course, those were monsters, but it's the same difference and she'll just be noting that down, along with the name.]

I'll see if I can track her down over the weekend.

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

[Don't hunt her and kill her, Lightning!]

You should've seen it. The whole Garden was going up to Trabia but crashed in the middle of a snow field. Popped right open. We had monsters in here left and right. After Pulse it kind of felt like a vacation, but the cadets were out there cleaning up.

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

[She hunts and kills monsters, not students! Rinoa's safe from the killing. The hunting...well, it's Lightning. What else is to be expected?]

This is a military school, Snow. Even I'd be a little concerned if they couldn't fight off a monster attack.

[And she would; no one can say Lightning doesn't care, she just...never really shows it beyond her family.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

They're still just students, you know. And a lot of them couldn't fight before they came here. Give 'em some credit.

[He's lightly teasing, not chiding. She had to grow up quick and early, it isn't hard to understand why she expects so much of others too.]

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

You try giving credit to someone who nearly shot himself in the foot the first time he picked up a handgun. It's not as easy as you make it seem.

[There's no need to tell her that not all the students are like that, but...well, she's got her reasoning. Even if she knows that not everyone went through her kind of lifestyle.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

I bet if you were going to admit it, you didn't turn out to be a prodigy the first time you picked up a gun.

[Though probably not quite that bad.]

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

[Not that bad, no, but...]

I emptied my first clip and didn't even hit the target. I'm not ashamed to admit that.

[She'd been so horribly embarrassed at the time, but here she was, six years later, and no issues to be had.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had about the same experience. Luckily, that kind of thing was always just a backup for me.

[He lifts a hand, then curls it into a fist with a grin. Snow can't even think of the last time he'd picked up a gun. In no small part because during the rescue at Palompolum, Fang had made him feel pretty much inadequate with one. But hey, he knows his strengths.]

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

Not surprising, really. But not all of us can knock people over with just one punch, you know.

[He knows his strengths, as does she. She knows better than to assume she'll ever be the brawler he is, so...well, her aim's certainly improved over the years.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

[Show folds his arms to think about that one for a moment.]

I bet Hope'll be able to once he shoots up. That just leaves Sazh and Vanille.

[Yeah, they weren't the most representative group... though suddenly Snow gets a grin.]

Wonder how Sazh's first time with a gun went.

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

He'd need a little training, too. Hope's never been one for physical combat.

[And the recoil from a gun would probably knock him for a loop the first time, if he wasn't prepared for it.

Sazh, on the other hand...]

You should probably ask him, but it might have gone the same way it would for anyone else. Nobody gets it right on their first try.

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

He knows where to get it if he ends up wanting it.

[Really, what would the two of them not do for Hope? Training was the least of things he could ask.]

I don't know. Fang sure caught me off guard the way she can use a gun.

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

[A nod at that; Was there anything they wouldn't do for him? Probably not, and if there was...it wouldn't be a good thing for him, that's for sure.]

You sure it was the first time she used one?

[Fang might be a rather special case, but still. Not even she can get everything right on her first try. ...Can she?]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

Probably not the first time, I'd be surprised if she hadn't tried it out a little while she was with the Cavalry. Still, pretty good shot, right?

[Lightning would have done better. Fang had wasted a lot of bullets, even though her results had been unquestionable.]

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

Considering she was in motion the entire time, yeah. She did pretty well.

[Lightning would have done better in terms of aiming before shooting, sure, but she wouldn't have taken down as many enemies; Fang had gotten the job done and that was what really mattered.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

You know, in retrospect those are all almost good memories.

[Which is a weird thing to say about Lightning and Hope nearly being killed, Hope nearly killing him, and him nearly dying from a fall.]

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

[It is a...very odd thing to say about that chain of events, but...well, considering what happened afterwards, he's certainly right. But that doesn't mean she can totally agree with him about it.]

Most people don't count getting nearly blown up and then falling a few stories as good memories, Snow. I'm beginning to wonder if you hit your head on the way down and we just never noticed.

[Yes, she is teasing. ...Mostly.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

It all turned out okay in the end. Besides, if the bad stuff hadn't happened, the good stuff wouldn't have either, right?

The whole nightmare was worth it just to get your blessing to marry your sister. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't come around.

[Well. He knows what the old him, the unbranded him, would've done, and these days he's not proud of it.]

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

Not in a way that would have meant anything. Hope would probably still have trouble with his father, at least.

[But his Mom might still be alive. Would it be worth the exchange? She can't say for sure.]

You'd have figured something out, or just charged right in like you always did. Can't say it would have ended well, though.

[More like it would have ended up with at least one of them in need of a hospital bed, and Lightning didn't like that one bit. Especially since she can remember those early days before the Purge; all that anger and fal'Cie knew what else might have ended up killing Snow. Now..now that's something she can't think of doing without her stomach tensing. He's family now, after all.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

Gone ahead, assuming I'd win you over eventually, somehow.

[Hindsight made it clear how very unlikely that would have been.]

Woulda ended horribly.

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

It doesn't matter now. It didn't come to that and after everything that happened, it wouldn't have. Don't think too much about it.

[Is she trying to change the topic? Not really. She's thought about it and knows that now that won't happen, but back then, it might have. Not really something she wants to dwell on.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

[He nods. Truth is, he's been thinking about it a lot more these days, for one simple reason -- which definitely didn't bear mentioning.]

Would you believe a couple kids here stole my hoverbike and took it out for a joyride?

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

[There was really no need to mention it, either; Claire would always be a...touchy subject.]

I'd believe that they stole it, but not that they got it off the ground. Those things aren't easy to handle.

[Especially for a couple of kids who don't even know how to control it to begin with.]

[haha-steelguard.livejournal.com]

You're telling me. I was amazed. Kiden's seen me fly it, before, but managing to drive it the way she did was something else. I told her she oughtta go into piloting.

[nvrstrikestwice.livejournal.com]

[Lightning obviously wasn't there, so she can't say just how good Kiden would be at piloting the thing, but if Snow's impressed...]

You tell her to talk to Sazh? He should be able to give her some pointers.