Pie's Thread

"Thanks!" Larissa calls out.

You head to the interior design lab. On the way you pass Zarvic and zer0 painting the central chamber on the first floor a deep blue. Heading down the stairs you find Valerie and Zachary painting the next landing. You make your way into the interior lab room. Texas is waiting as Sammy is busy mixing up new paints. He notices you come in and waves. "Hey. You want to help out? Texas could use a hand painting his room."

Texas nods. "Think we're gonna go with sky blue. Maybe add a few clouds."

You aren't really given a choice.

You head into the bounty hunter's lab for the first time. It looks like a firing range, complete with a few human-sized dummies. Paintball guns line a rack on the side, as well as some throwing knives, handcuffs, tasers, pepper spray and other useful equipment. Also, big cowboy hats.

"So, welcome to m' lab," Texas says. "Plenty of equipment I can teach ya 'bout some other day if y' want. But today?" He holds up a paint bucket. "Guess we're prettyin' the place up. Which ain't a bad thing, I s'pose. These bright-white walls ain't great fer target practice."

"Eh. For a real range, sure. But these are paint guns." Texas picks up a pistol and twirls it. "Paintballs are big 'n' slow, not like a bullet. Easy enough to track even in front of a background. 's why we're using a light color, though." He fires off a few shots to show you, all impacting different targets in the shoulders.

You start painting and before long the room walls start to look like a mid-afternoon sky. You even add in some clouds and a sun in the corner around one of the lights.

"Heh, I'd say it came out pretty good," Texas says. "Shame it'll be covered in paintballs 'fore long."

Gain a Hope Fragment between John and Texas

You notice it's time for lunch. Afterwards, you try to decide what to do for the afternoon. It seems the painting is done for the day while Sammy makes more paint.

You go looking for Mikoto after lunch.  With a little asking around, you're able to find she headed to the bounty hunting lab so you head downstairs.  Fortunately, the paint seems to have mostly dried.

The lab is crowded.  Half of the people seem to have had the same idea.  You, Anne, Zach, Valerie, Mikoto, The Bulgarian, and Zarv are all here.  Texas wanders in and whistles.  "Wow.  Awful lot o' ya'll wanna learn how t' shoot t'day, huh?"

"Well, I already had some training as a detective trainee, I just wanted to make sure I don't get rusty," Mikoto says.

"Well, that's just fine.  Maybe y'wanna help me teach some o' the rookies?" Texas asks.  He pulls some of the paintball pistols from the wall, checking their pressure and balance.  "So, who wants t' try some target practice?"

John raises his hand.  Everyone looks at him.  Zarv doesn't bother with such a signal and just takes up a pistol.

"I can help with some of the basic instruction," Mikoto says.  "Why don't I help John while you work with the others.

"Um... It looks fun, but Anne's not s'posed to play with guns!" Anne Jean says.

"Well, that's fine," Texas says.

The Bulgarian holds up his hands.  "Perhaps I'll try, but I'd prefer to watch for a few moments, first."

Zach thinks and watches the others before relenting.  "I'd like to try, if you don't mind. Pa liked to hunt, but never got a chance to teach me how to shoot."

"Yeah?" Texas asks.  "Well, hunters usually prefer a rifle fer the range 'n' accuracy.  A pistol'll do ya fine at point-blank range, but soon as you start gettin' far 'nough away t' not spook an animal it gets tougher.  Still, understandin' the basics of aimin', breath control, and most importantly safety'll do ya good fer learnin' how t' shoot a rifle later.  K, I'll show ya some basic stance work then we can get our hands on.  Ya'll ready?"

You spend some time practicing just standing and holding a gun with a lot of criticism about trigger discipline and aiming before you shoot which Valerie seems more than a little annoyed about.  Texas is quick to remind you that you also should not go out on a shooting gallery unless everyone is aware.

"Shootin' knives outta people's hands?  Aimin' fer kneecaps?  Warnin' shots?  Forget all that Hollywood nonsense.  Ya made a choice when ya pulled out a gun 'n' not a different weapon.  Aim fer the chest first.  Two shots."

You practice with the dummies for a bit.  Zack and Zarv both seem to take to shooting well enough, easily adapting lumberjacking stances and flexibility techniques to shooting.  The Bulgarian, when he finally joins in, is also able to pick up on things quickly.  John has a bit more trouble but eventually figures it out well enough to hit the close targets more often than not.

Valerie, on the other hand, is extremely bad at this and even looks down the barrel of her pistol at one point - Texas is quick to grab her arm and stop her from firing.  "Phew...  I hat t' say, Miss Valkyrie, that ya'in't great at this."

Mikoto shows that she does indeed know her way around a pistol and even joins in helping Texas a bit.

Anne stays in the back and cheers people on.

Texas seems satisfied with everyone's progress - and doesn't try to force Anne to join in.

"Hey, Alice?" Texas calls out. "We're runnin' a bit low on paintballs. Only got 'bout a dozen left. Are there any more in storage?"

"Yes. They will be restocked overnight," the computer's voice rings out over the speakers.

"Hm. Anyway... Ya'll did fine. Most o' ya'll did more'n fine fer first-timers."

Valerie blushes.

Mikoto gives you a high-five.

Gain a Trust Fragment between John and Texas

You all head upstairs to dinner and find everyone gathered - including Francois for once. After everyone orders their meals and sit down, Zack speaks up. "So anyone got any interestin' news?"