twelve_not_fourteen | fulfilling a promised lesson on the fine art of blasting things ...

Walking back to the Millennium Falcon through the Nexus has gotten a little bit easier each time. The first time, it took him more than an hour to get back despite the fact that his ship has always been parked about a thousand yards away from a path that leads to the forum. The shiftable nature of this place makes no walk to and from anywhere as straightforward as it seems, but you can get used to it.

For a while, he cleans up the areas that he thinks both he and Verity are likely to be in for a while - the cockpit and the lounge especially, but also near the entry ramp and the living quarters.

He did promise lessons on how to fly and in due course, he will get her into the sky with him ... but he's still doesn't have a ton of fuel yet and the priority was always teaching her how to use the blasters. So he's pulled four weapons out of the storage lockers, completely disassembled them and cleaned them. He also discharges all, but one, of the plasma magazines.

They get placed them on top of the holochess board, which, sadly, is among one of the biggest flat surfaces available to him on the YT-1300 and then, he takes a shower and slips into a light weight pair of pants. It seems to take a long time for him to drift off in the small bunk that he's claimed for himself. The sound of the winter wind skips across the surface of his ship and makes a low howling sort of sound.

This is one of the reasons it's always preferable to put your ship in a proper hanger, but, when you're Han Solo, you work with what you got. After a few hours he wakes up, not knowing what time it is, until he opens the entry ramp and looks outside.

It seems too early for her to arrive. The sun hasn't even reached the apex of it's path yet, so he decides to lay back down. Leaving the ramp down for her to facilitate her letting herself in.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

brave_heart_verity

Her emotions are a discarded heap on shifting sands. She had no idea what's going on half the time either.

"A little," she admits, "but I understand why we're starting there."

There are gun ranges and shooting galleries and the like, but she's grown up with the idea of tin cans on the back fence. Some cultural hand-me-downs are hard to shake. "I'll get to shoot them someday, right?"

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

Han wouldn't blame her. If it was him, he'd be utterly dissapointed, as a matter of fact. There's maybe a small part of him that wonders if there was something else, but ... he shakes the feeling off.

And his preference would be shooting outside too, if the weather were better.

"Well." He purses his lips. "Maybe we'll go up on the roof and shoot a few bolts." He actually kind of wanted to get up on the roof to gaze at the stars later ...

From:

brave_heart_verity

There is always something else. Several of them. A face she'll always look for in the crowd, a name that makes her want to cry, memories of fire.

But there's something nice to look forward to, so she chooses to smile instead of moping. "That sounds fun. Thank you."

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

He certainly has his own baggage. Not to mention he has a fair bit of experience consoling women in pain, but that's neither here nor there. You can only help when someone wants to let you and he understands both sides of that.

"No problem."

Han secures the trio of crates back in the storage crates with a maglock and then, he'll lead them over to the holochess board that his toys are laid out on.

"I laid out four types. There's a hold-out blaster, two kinds of heavy pistols, and a blaster rifle.

From:

brave_heart_verity

The better she knows him, the more she'll open up. Skittish tauntaun, remember? And she's more likely to talk about these things when they're not going to need steady nerves to play with his toys.

Ver looks over the options; it's not hard to figure out which one is which. She makes no move to touch them without explicit permission--she's been well-trained in that regard already. "Where I come from, the bigger the gun, the bigger the impact. Is it the same with these?"

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

The holdout blaster is the smallest one. It's clearly tapping into an easy to conceal modality in it's design. These are the one's Han tends to hide on his person somewhere if he expects things to go down.

The riffle is obviously the biggest one. That one is semi-automatic, which, is actually kind of rare where he comes from. It's easily the most powerful looking gun on the table.

Of the two medium blasters on the table one is a DH-17 which kind of resembles the length and bulk of a one handed riffle and a DL-44, which is the same model as in Han's holster.

"Generally speaking, yeah, the bigger the gun the harder it hits." He says with a nod. All the guns are somewhat disassembled. Barrels detached, gas cartridges and power packs removed. "You can touch them, if you want."

"Knowing how they come apart and how they're cleaned is vital to making them reliable, because they'll find the worst times to jam on you if you don't. I'll probably teach you how to do that next time."

From:

brave_heart_verity

"Thank you." They've been taken apart, but she doesn't know what those parts are so she's going to treat them like they're loaded. No fingers near triggers and no pointing them at him ever. Contrary to trope, she goes for the little one first. It would be the easiest to conceal, which appeals to her. There are a fair few places she could hide it.

Next she examines the DL-44. "This is like yours?" Ver is very detail-oriented. "Of course, I'll have to learn to take care of the weapons, every good crew member needs to know that sort of thing."

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

"I like that you're observing the first rule already." Technically, he broke it earlier today, but, they're well enough passed that. Or he thinks they are, anyway.

The holdout blaster is so small that Han can actually palm the weapon if he needs to. Though it's not as if he'd be able to keep it hidden for a real long time with just his hand. Solo has been known to carry two on his person, along with the trusty DL-44 on occasion.

He is possibly thinking too deeply, but, it says a lot to him that she looks at the holdout weapon first.

"In the fact that it's the same model." He confirms to her question. "That's a standard. Mine is modified."

From:

brave_heart_verity

She grins, but she doesn't look away from what she's doing. He gets to break the rules because it's his ship and his guns and he's much more familiar with these things. "Samus has been teaching me about weapon safety," she explains. "A fair bit of it carries over. Handling them is a whole other story."

If he's getting the impression she's not a killer, he'd be right. If he's got the impression she hasn't been armed every time he's met her, he'd be very wrong.

"Modified?" She puts the blaster down before giving him a curious look. "Is that something you did yourself?"

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

Han removes the stability strap from his holster, engages the safety of his weapon and removes the pistol. Carefully, he hands the gun for her to examine with the barrel pointed down at the floor.

What she notice right away, if she's detail oriented, is that even though this one is fully put together, it's nearly as light the shell of a blaster she was touching before. There is also a different scope on it. There are a few things different on the inside as well, but she won't notice that from just observing it.

"All by myself." He says with a slight nod.

Edited Date: 2016-02-29 09:02 pm (UTC)

From:

brave_heart_verity

The pistol will remain pointed at the floor the whole time she's holding it, and not pointed at their feet either. She suspects that would hurt.

"It's light." She notices the scope too, but it's the weight that really impresses her. "If you'd ever be content with a desk job, you'd be an excellent engineer. And a dangerous one."

Back home, he would have built himself a suit of high-tech armor and... well, she hopes he'd have been a hero. If for no other reason than he doesn't deserve to be stuck around people like Boomerang and the Chameleon.

"Is there much recoil on these?"

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

Han Solo behind a desk?! You might as well clip the wings off of a bird, lady.

"Helps when you're trying to draw your weapon as fast as you can. Every ounce matters." He points out. If she's impressed with him, he can't really tell, but, he wasn't necessarily expecting her to shower him with praise over making his gun slightly easier to pick up.

"Hardly any. Not on weapons this small."

From:

brave_heart_verity

That would be a crime.

There's a moment before she responds; thoughts of her home sweep her up into times and places that will never be. It can be hard to escape. But she comes back with a smile and a nod. "So I've heard. It's impressive."

She offers the blaster back to him. "But on some of the larger ones?"

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

He would find it interesting that she could see him as a superhero, or hope for it anyway, if he were from her world. As it is, he doesn't know what she's thinking, all he knows is that she's smiling at the moment.

The smuggler's hand settles against hers, seemingly uninterested in the gun. It's a gentle touch and he doesn't bother to try to say a clever line, thereby spoiling the moment. When it feels like he should, he will take replace the gun into his holster.

"There are some extra large caliber artillery weapons that have something of a kick, but they're more used for wartime purposes." We're taking weapons big enough to put holes in starfighters. Nobody is going to be trying to handle one of those without a mount, though.

Edited Date: 2016-02-29 10:09 pm (UTC)

From:

brave_heart_verity

He could be if he wanted. She can't fault him for not wanting it, she turned down her chance at the fame and glory and hid in her apartment instead.

Sometimes, she thinks they only let each other really see their true selves in these silent moments. Words are a way of protecting themselves that they're both too skilled at. Her smile grows and softens when his hand rests on hers. She looks up just before he moves again, wondering what he's thinking.

"Ah. Not something I'm likely to see, I suppose."

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

"I hope not."

Skipping around Imperial's in his way is one thing, but Han's certainly not hoping for war. It's bad for business. Among other things.

"I feel like once again there's less to teach you then I thought."

From:

brave_heart_verity

"Me too." She's seen enough.

It takes a special talent to look amused while rolling her eyes. "Oh yes, how terrible that you're not the one putting your toes at risk teaching me how to handle weapons. I'm sure I'll have to find some way to make it up to you. If it makes you feel better, I'm going to be almost entirely clueless when it comes to moving a vehicle in three dimensions."

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

"So what's going you so driven to become a well trained solider, huh?"

At this point, it's clear that she's spent a lot of time learning about weapons. He's got some idea that the two of them, her and Samus, run pretty vigorously together. You gotta wonder if she's preparing for something at a certain point.

Edited Date: 2016-03-01 01:21 am (UTC)

From:

brave_heart_verity

Oh.

They have to talk about that, do they? Ver looks down, suddenly withdrawn without having taken a step away.

"Because when the world ended, nobody came for me." Her voice is small, flat, empty. This is just how it is, nothing personal. "So I have to be able to take care of myself."

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

He's not sure what kind of answer he was expecting, but he instantly regretted asking. Though, it's certainly a feeling that he can empathize with. The feeling like there's nobody to rely on but one's self.

"Hey."

He's reached out to tilt her jaw up without even thinking about how it's probably not the right move to make with his skittish tauntaun till after he's done it. He's looking pretty deeply at her with those brown eyes of his too.

"I know it hurts, but ... it made you into someone who impresses the hell out of me."

From:

brave_heart_verity

It's not a feeling anyone should understand.

She doesn't flinch away from the touch. That's a victory. She tries to give him a smile, but it's a feeble little thing. Just at the moment, she can't fake it. She can't fake the surprise, either. "Me? Impressive?"

She knows he means it, but clearly she has no idea why.

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

Considering how some of his touches have been met before, he does consider it a victory. Although, now that he has her attention, he's not exactly sure where to go from here.

Well, it's hardly the first time Captain Solo was making shit up as he went along.

"Yeah." He murmurs, offering a bit of a smile back. "I thought I was gonna be spending all this time trying to get you up to speed and, here you are knowing most of what I have to say."

From:

brave_heart_verity

Be careful what you wish for, Captain Solo. Because this time, it's got her very observant gaze laser-locked on him.

She'll try smiling again; it's a better attempt this time, but still not quite there. "Well. It wouldn't do to waste my captain's time."

From:

twelve_not_fourteen

It's fine that the smiling still isn't there, in fact, Han tends to smile a lot when he's not really feeling it in his heart. Maybe it's all the sabbac, but, he's actually developed some skill at hiding the way he feels when he wants to.

He's still got his hand on her jaw doesn't he? She hasn't knocked it away yet, so that's something. He turns his hand over and very softly traces a little of her jawline. His hand is a little rough, especially on that side, but after a moment or two he lets it fall away.

"No moment that I've been with you has felt like a waste of time." He assures her. "Maybe we'll put together one of those blasters. Shooting things always makes me feel better."

From:

brave_heart_verity

A good poker face is an asset in his line of work. It's not a skill that comes naturally to her, and so much of the ability she'd developed seems to have vanished in the wake of things. But maybe that's a good thing for him. Ver doesn't flinch away from the caress but she also doesn't lean into it. It's lovely; her eyes close and she's smiling now, but she's trying not to encourage him too much.

See? All out in the open and perfectly understandable! (Anyone who believes that might want to buy this bridge...)

Ah, now there's the real compliment, the one that makes her smile and blush and feel fluttery inside. She's not sure how to respond so she'll move on to the part that isn't making her feel funny. "Oh, does it? Good to know."