[ dec / open ] what even is the point of december without christmas presents?

[princessvegas]

WHO: Julie + others
WHAT: December catchall
WHERE: Places
WHEN: December
WARNINGS: Language, etc. Specific cws in subject headings.

[ ooc: dec catchall, starters in comments, bitchcraft or bitchcraft#2753 to plot. ]

Comments

[princessvegas]

[ Honestly, Julie could spend several hours just poring over every little aspect of this room; not only has she never actually been anywhere like it before, it feels like even just absorbing the space would help her better understand this world. She is also someone who can be incredibly nosy. But she's also not about to turn down the opportunity to see other rooms. Her only information of places like this stems directly from Hollywood, so she can't fathom what such a large building could actually house.

She turns and beams, bouncing on the balls of her feet. An armory sounds cool as hell, even by her limited knowledge of weapons available in this world. Swords, bows and arrows, spiky balls on chains? Maybe long sticks with pointy stuff. ]

Sure! How many people live here? In the real one, I mean.

[wiedzminka]

[ Ciri smiles at Julie's reaction; she'd thought Julie might like that. She leads the way out of the hall, taking her through the familiar corridors toward one of the rooms where weapons are kept, avoiding the stairs leading down toward the labs.

The question is innocent. Julie doesn't... understand. Or maybe she does, and Ciri's not giving her enough credit. She'd seen the tree, after all. How many medallions are on it. ]

About a dozen. [ She answers after a beat. ]

That was years ago. Now, probably less.

I don't know.

[ Julie's impression of what to expect was pretty much spot-on as they enter. Swords hang on the walls, axes, even a few maces and a polearm or two. Some crossbows. There are also materials with which to make armor, leather and rivets and tools lined up on worktables. Containers of oils for weapons and leather maintenance. The usual. ]

Nadine asked me about learning how to use a weapon, since the ones she's used to don't exist in Abraxas.

[princessvegas]

[ N O P E. Guess what Witcher never clarified numbers when he told her about where witchers come from? In fact, he hadn't told her anything more than the fact that witchers are made from unwilling children. She doesn't know how long they've been around, how many there were, or that they can't be made anymore. Your dad is not a thorough storyteller, Ciri.

Julie follows Ciri down the hall, though she pauses and glances back at the tree with a thoughtful tilt to her head. ] Huh. I guess I thought there'd be more.

[ But she doesn't dwell, turning back and keeping up with Ciri. In the armory, she looks around with genuine interest, examining the weapons closely. It's only when Nadine is mentioned that she focuses on the conversation. ]

Oh, yeah. I think she's only ever used a pistol before. Most people where I'm from don't know how to use this kind of stuff. Guns are just too good at killin' to bother with swords and shit. People only do that as a hobby now.

[wiedzminka]

Too good at killing?

[ Ciri sounds skeptical. The pistols she's seen around Cadens and the outpost -- and they are rare to begin with -- hardly seem more reliable than a bow. And she's under the impression they're actually slower. Nadine explained that what exists in her and Julie's world is a more advanced version of that, but Ciri still doesn't think it could beat out the weapons she's used to. Not when it comes to warfare. ]

A projectile weapon and a close-combat one are different tools for different situations.

[ The whole bit about people only using swords as a hobby is faintly baffling, but Ciri doesn't question it. She wouldn't call training a hobby, exactly, but she understands well enough that Julie might. She does spend a lot of time on it. ]

Speaking of-- If I'm giving Nadine some advice anyway, I may as well extend the invitation to you. Interested?

[princessvegas]

Sure. Sniper can take someone out from a thousand yards, if they're good enough. Point-blank range on a handgun, like Nadine knows how to use, that's still about twenty-five yards. We make bullets that explode, send a bunch of smaller bullets, basically. Buckshot. Imagine I fire a gun at you once, but you get hit ten times from it. And that's just guns. With missiles and bombs, there's barely ever a reason to be in close combat.

[ Julie happens to be from somewhere that hunting in general is popular and even children often have experience with. She'd learned to aim a bow by the time she started school; she could take out a boar at fifty yards with a rifle before she could drive. It was the only activity her father really engaged in with her, because he was the kind of man who had wanted sons and instead got a single unruly daughter. But she had an uncanny eye, and he'd latched onto that, buying her tiny compound bows and gifting her a modified shotgun before she was even big enough to really handle the recoil. But no one had ever worked under the assumption that she would need to learn how to swing a claymore or whatever.

Running her fingers over the blade of an axe, she rolls one shoulder with a shrug. Honestly, she's never had much interest in swords, and she is beginning to feel stretched thin under her various commitments. The magic in particular is incredibly draining. ] I think I'm okay. Nadine's got it in her head that I'll be better at magic than her, plus I've been usin' a bow since I was a little kid. So she figures she'll learn swords.

[ There is perhaps a note of dryness in her tone. She has doubts about how well Nadine Cross will be able to wield any kind of blade. ]