paradisa | Expedition Log 6

[Lara nods, almost relieved to hear that the woman would be alright for now. It didn't take long after that until they made it to the range]

Here it is. It's always open so you can always practice here when you feel like it.

[Lara lays the bags of weapons on a nearby table, leaving a lot of them out for Tess to choose in case she wants to try out a different gun]

Good to know.

[Tess isn't shy about going up to inspect them –– christ, they look brand new. These guns aren't too dissimilar from the ones she uses, albeit cleaner, shinier. The United States hasn't seen a new gun off the manufacturing lines for at least fifteen years, and foreign outfits aren't doing much better.

She picks up an AK-47 and disassembles it with a well-practiced efficiency, and then puts it back together.]

I haven't seen a gun this nice in ages. Beautiful. Assault rifles like this aren't easy to come by, let alone one in flawless condition.

So have I. Had to resort to using rusty firearms before I landed here. The guns could have malfunctioned on me at any time, but thankfully none of them didn't.

[Lara wasn't surprised to see Tess assemble and disassemble that rifle. She takes her handgun and stood on an empty firing lane to get started]

Rough. We take good care of what we get, but hell, people are so desperate they'll buy sketchy pieces, too. It isn't like they live to complain about them.

[Tess watches Lara line up as she preps the assault rifle.]

Any protocol this place insists on?

[Lara smirked a little]

No. Just unleash hell and, have fun I suppose.

[She reloads to do just that]

[Tess has never been on a shooting range. Not a legitimate one, anyway. She touched her first gun at eighteen, shot her first infected at nineteen, shot her first human being at twenty-one.

The closest thing she's ever had to a shooting lesson was from her dad in the back woods behind their home, and then Joel showing her how to hold a shotgun — the most painfully Texan shit he has ever pulled. The rest was all her. ]

I can certainly do that.

[Lara waits to fire to watch Tess, just out of curiosity to see how good this lady is]

[Her shoulder is shit, but she's toughed out being jumped, gang-beaten and worse. Like hell she's going to cry about her shoulder being roughly the same texture as fresh ground hamburger, but she does move with a noticeable stiffness, teeth grit as the butt bumps up against the bandaging.

The recoil's going to hurt like hell, she knows.

She tests her grip, tucks her chin to bring her eye level to the rear sight and front housing, and slides her finger to the trigger as she aims for the test dummy.

Then she lets loose.]

[Tess fucked that dummy up. Lara approves and looked at Tess, able to relate to her pain tolerance. She might be a great ally someday. Definitely not someone you'd want to be on the bad side of]

That's impressive. Especially with your injuries...

[Tess finds herself breathing deeper, a little faster –– it fucking hurts like shit, and when she lowers the gun, it's to put it down entirely. That's fucking enough.]

Thanks. It hurts like a bitch... but knowing I can do it is enough.

[She takes out her own handgun instead.]

[Lara nods]

Okay.

[Lara turns her attention to the target in her lane and takes aim with her handgun. She fired a few shots and hit in or pretty close to the bull's eye]

I should suggest to Katniss we should try to put a moving target in here.

[An amused look slides onto her face.]

Katniss, huh? She as good of a shot as she claims to be?

[And that amused expression was contagious enough to make Lara lift the corner of her lip]

I can't say for sure. We've really gotten along during a world change, when the castle decided to make us younger and turned us to students of a witchcraft and wizardry school...

[Lara shakes her head at that. It just sounds so silly when she said it like that]

[Tess just raises an eyebrow. That sounded like gibberish.]

Should I ask?

I can't see why not. You do look like you're new here...

All of it, then. World change? Made you younger? Turned you into students of a wizard school?

[Lara thought for a second, of a way to make it concise and not the length of a college lecture]

Pretty sure you've heard of us being in a magic castle... The castle itself has some sentience, it seems. It could take us to different places, like the wizardry school, or an island full of dinosaurs. It could alter the memories and bodies of the residents. For example, a resident turned into a dog for a few days before turning back to his normal self. All it did to me is make me three years younger during that time in that school.

No one knows exactly why it does that. We concluded it's just the castle being a arse in exchange of wishing for material things.

[Lara shrugged. Even now it still bothered her curious mind why the castle does what it does, and why she got picked to be here in the first place]

[Tess just stares for a moment, eyes narrowing.]

I don't have nearly enough alcohol in my system to even start believing any of that.

[Lara laughed]

I don't blame you. Even now I still can't believe everything this place throws at me.

But if you want something to drink, there's a bar in the castle. I'm there a lot.

The Lux, right? I've been there. It's amazing, but then again, everything is amazing here.

There's also The Death Match. An acquaintance of mine owns it at the moment, so I help there whenever I could.

Any significance behind the name?

It's also a fight club. But nobody goes there for that now.

[A curious look.]

People were really that desperate for entertainment here?

Yeah. It can get mind-numbingly dull in here unfortunately.

[Like being in the Endurance for days and days. Lara almost want to throw herself overboard from sheer boredom]

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