Laurie & Garrison log:

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Garrison comes across Laurie practicing archery in the woods and they have a talk.





Whap-tunnng!

The string slapped back against the bracer on Laurie's arm and she watched as the arrow made a smooth arc, and then fell toward the target, striking it with a solid 'thunk'. Her hand was already reaching back behind her for the next arrow, launching it just as quickly as the previous one and just as accurately. She'd been practicing for about half an hour now, and she could feel the tension between her shoulder blades, she'd need to do some stretching afterwards if she didn't want to feel it come the morrow.

It was only after the last arrow had loosed, and that her reaching hand found no more in the quiver at her back that she noticed someone standing several paces away, watching quietly. She blinked, reaching up to flip a strand of sweat sodden hair from her face and smiled amiably.

"Sorry, I get kinda focused when I'm practicing. You been standing there long?"

"About two-thirds of a quiver. I was drawn to the sound of Robin Hooding." Kane said from the post against which he was leaning. He'd still never fully explored the grounds, and was starting to no longer be surprised every time he discovered some new training spot or outdoors installation tucked away around the mansion. This time, it had been the strange meaty 'thunk' of the arrows, a very new sound to him, that had pulled him off the path to investigate.

"The bow Forge made for me makes aiming almost too easy, so I try to practice with this one and a more traditional bow to keep the skill up." Laurie explained, placing it down by a tree and walking over to pull the arrows from the target. "Guess this is a bit of a surprise, considering how much of a whimp I am about hurting people, hey?"

"If you were using students for target practice, sure. However, I'm pretty sure that targetshooting with a bow doesn't qualify you for misdirected bloodthirstiness yet, eh?" Garrison shrugged. She probably learned how to do it in high school or girl scouts.

"I guess that depends on who you're picturing when you're shooting." Laurie replied with an easy grin, picking up the wooden bow she'd had leant against a tree and quickly stringing it. You couldn't keep a wooden bow strung unless you wanted it to warp, but she'd gotten pretty fast over the years. She still perfered the modern version over the archiac. "How good a shot are you? With a gun, I mean."

"Not bad. I've qualified marksman with both the FBI and the RCMP. Not exactly Wyatt Earp, but well enough to avoid shooting myself in the foot. Why?" Kane said, wondering about the sudden deviation into guns and the apparent focus she was putting into her archery training.

"I was told that if you're really good, you can shoot to wound, rather then to kill." Laurie responded, pulling the string of the bow back and releasing the arrow she'd placed. It flew true, and struck the center of the target, the middle of the chest for a man of average height.

"Only in the movies." Garrison shook his head as he came forward and took a seat at the bench by where she was shooting. "The reality, Laurie, is that when you're training in firearms, you're taught to aim for the two largest targets; the trunk of the body, and the head. That's why all our targets on the range are just a sillouette of the head and chest. Trying to hit someone in the leg or the arm, because they're smaller targets, you're more likely to miss and hit someone else, or to give the criminal a chance to shoot back at you or someone innocent."

"Oh." Laurie said softly, lowering the bow and looking at the target for a long moment. She'd hoped that maybe, with enough practice..."I can't use my power at a distance, you know. Not unless I want to affect everyone in radius of me. I was hoping there was some non-lethal way to take care of that."

"Unfortunately, Laurie, guns are a lethal tool. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise." Kane said seriously. "Same with that bow, or any other type of long range weapon. Why are you suddenly worried about attacking people at long range? You planning on joining the X-Men?"

"Maybe, as a field medic anyhow. I just don't want to be a liability if it comes to it. I'm not really looking to kill anyone if I can help it. If there's no other way, I guess I'll have to but I don't really want to." Laurie said, unstringing the bow and coiling the line up. "I'm only seventeen, I don't even know if the X-men is what I want. I just want a chance to figure it out, do something to make a difference."

Garrison held off sighing. This is what came from too many movies, and too little time outside of the school recently. "Laurie, what makes you think that you'd ever need to attack someone at long distance? Or be a liability?"

"Look," Garrison patted the bench beside him in invitation. "I don't carry my gun on X-Men missions. Because my job isn't to attack someone at long range. We have people with those abilities that train specifically for it. Do you think that makes me a liability, eh?"

"No but you've got all that training. Although, I guess I'd get that as well." Laurie responded, smiling wryly and taking a seat beside him. "That's it, isn't it? I'd get the training I needed to do the job I'm best suited for. They took us so fast, you know. Even Amanda and Angelo. I just thought if I had some way to take someone out from a distance, I could do something if it happened again. Not that it'll happen again. I hope."

"Well, some types of things you can't plan for. Best trained people make mistakes." He said seriously. "All that you can do is to do is your best and trust your team. I've looked at the reports, you know. I don't think any of the X-Men could have stopped that hijacking, not without endangering the other students in the van. I mean, all you'd need is just one of the assassins to have a second to pull the trigger while the gun was pointed in the van, and... even Scott and Ms Munroe would have done exactly what Angelo, Amanda, and the rest of you did."

"It's the difference between knowing it and feeling it." Laurie responded, pushing her hair back behind one ear. "I'm being a little arrogant, aren't I? I try not to be obnoxious but sometimes the teenage part gets the better of me."

"You're untrained. That's what the training is supposed to do. It lets you feel it." Kane clapped her on the shoulder. "Laurie, you're seventeen years old. It's great that you want to help, but you can't hold yourself to the same standards as people with years, if not decades of training. All you'll do it make yourself stressed and miserable the entire time."

"Look, if you want to feel less helpless, come and see me next week. I know you're enrolled in the self defense class here, but if you're willing to commit to some extra practice, I can start you on some advanced techniques. It's not a lot, but it will start making you feel like you're doing something about it."

"Thanks. I'd like that." Laurie responded, looking up at the grey clouds above. "You know, I think it's gonna rain. Race you back to the mansion, old man?"

"I run at close to fifty kilometres an hour." Kane looked at the sky, and effortlessly reached out and hoisted up Laurie, holding her over his head. "However, this seems like a really good way to avoid getting wet." He said, getting up and holding Laurie like an umbrella above him.

"Hey, I can see my house from up here." Laurie joked, laughing as she gripped Garrison's upper arms. "Onward, sherpa. Onward."