she's not a girl who misses much

[lonewolflives]

It had seemed a straightforward idea at the beginning of the term. Eventually being able to replace her bullets wasn't the only reason she'd taken metallurgy and chemistry, but it had seemed like the ability to do so would eventually result

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[learnwhatsreal]

While Jenny had held a gun once before, so long ago now that she couldn't even remember how far back it was, they still served to make her uneasy. It didn't help that she'd been more on edge lately anyway, ever since she had shown up out in dinosaur territory and been, however briefly, convinced that she was going to die. Walking up to see Arya wielding such a weapon now was, for a moment, startling, but she managed to release most of the tension in her shoulders before she approached, albeit carefully, not wanting to startle her when she was holding a gun that was probably loaded.

"Were you gonna fire?" she asked, careful, bracing herself for it in case she did. "Or just aim?"

[lonewolflives]

"Hi, Jenny," Arya said, still aiming down the range, twisting her mouth to the side as she considered. "I hadn't decided yet. Probably just aim. I don't have that much ammo."

[learnwhatsreal]

"Right," Jenny said, like that was something she had known all along, nodding her understanding. Of course that would be the case. It just gave her more of a reason to relax. "And hi. Does it really help that way, if you don't shoot?"

[lonewolflives]

"If only," Arya said. "But no, probably not. If it did, just thinking about it would probably be enough to get better, too."

[learnwhatsreal]

"Yeah, probably," Jenny allowed, head tilting to the side. It ought to have been enough of an answer, but she was left curious, gaze briefly leaving Arya and wandering out towards the target. "So... what are you doing, then?"

[lonewolflives]

"Wasting time, I guess," Arya said, dropping the gun to her side. "I just felt like coming out here with it, and then I realized maybe I shouldn't waste the bullets."

[learnwhatsreal]

"Better to waste time than wasting them?" Jenny guessed, not sure she would have described either as wasteful, per se, but wanting to make sure she was following this right anyway. "It's still got to be useful, being able to use one of those."

[lonewolflives]

"It's come in handy a few times," Arya said, nodding. "Usually I can get by with swords, or knives, but sometimes it helps to just be able to..." She raised the gun with one hand, pointed away from the both of them, and said, "Bang."

Dropping it again, she asked, "Have you ever?"

[learnwhatsreal]

"Shot a gun?" Jenny asked, the wide-eyed, slightly incredulous look on her face likely serving as enough of an answer. She'd never had either a reason or a desire to, but being asked now, she wasn't sure if all of that was still true. A gun would have been a hell of a lot more effective against a dinosaur than a stick. "No. But I held one, once."

[lonewolflives]

Arya looked down at the gun in her hand, briefly chewing her lip as she considered. It wasn't like she didn't have any ammunition.

"Would you like to?"

[learnwhatsreal]

Jenny, too, paused a moment as she considered the gun in Arya's hand, her expression likewise thoughtful. What she came back to, through all of her doubts, was how recently she had almost died, and how, in a place like this, at least having done so once could wind up being helpful. Holding out a hand, she nodded once.

"If you're sure you don't mind."

[lonewolflives]

Arya checked that the safety was on, saying, "I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't."

She spun the gun in her hand so that she was holding it by the barrel, out to the side slightly so that it was proferred without actually pointing back at her.

"You want to check if a gun is loaded when someone hands it to you, so press here and the clip'll come out. Then rack the slide to check the chamber."

[learnwhatsreal]

With no small amount of uncertainty, Jenny reached out to take the weapon from Arya, carefully following each instruction, not wanting to get anything wrong. There wasn't any room for screwing up with a gun in her hands, and she had enough else to worry about without risking doing something really stupid, too. Not wanting to take too much attention away from the gun for too long, she glanced up expectantly at Arya. "Okay," she said, trying to commit everything she'd been told to memory, "what next?"

[lonewolflives]

Arya absently shot her hand out and caught the round that had been in the chamber as it ejected when Jenny racked the slide. "Put the clip back in, then rack the slide again, which'll put a bullet in the chamber. There was one there already," she held up the one she'd caught, held between thumb and forefinger, "but it's better to make sure it's empty and then put one there yourself. Apparently."

She paused, then remembered what she probably should have started with. "And don't point it at anyone you're not prepared to see dead."

[learnwhatsreal]

A breath caught in Jenny's throat as the bullet fell, but she relaxed from that surprise easily enough. Really, she didn't know why it was so nervewracking; she'd seen it done on movies and TV any number of times. The weight of a gun in her hands made all the difference, though, and especially with a statement like that from Arya, she supposed it was best that she be careful, anyway. Better cautious than too confident.

"Right," she said with a short, uncertain laugh as she followed Arya's instructions, turning from her only to make sure that her body was angled towards the target, not wanting the barrel of the gun aimed anywhere near Arya even before she was going to fire it. "So... now it's ready to go?"

[lonewolflives]

"The safety's still on, but we'll leave it there 'til you're standing right," Arya said, stepping behind Jenny, close and just to the side. "Feet shoulder-length apart. You're right-handed, yeah? Left foot forward, like so." With her own foot, she pushed Jenny's to about where they should be. "Both hands on the grip, right arm straight."