[open] delicate in every way but one

[controlledvariable]

Date & Time: Late December/Early January
Location: The woods around Exsilium
Characters: Stephanie Brown and you~
Summary: Hunting! Doing stuff! No it's mostly just hunting
Warnings: Some descriptions of killing stuff, will update if it gets worse
Notes: This is mostly for people I talked with on the CR meme but feel free to tag in if you'd like to do a thing! You can run into her in the woods or in her way back into town or whathaveyou!


[Back when Ellie taught her to hunt, Steph never thought she'd have all that much use for it; they had plenty of money in old Exsilium, enough that she never worried about running out of funds or food. It definitely wasn't necessary on the moon, but now that they're in this snowy landscape and there's rent and utilities and food costs, it helps to catch some of their own meat, either to eat themselves or trade for something else. The killing part she's got down pat, though more often than not she takes the animals to one of the butcher's in Exsilium, rather than trying her hand at gutting and skinning. Ellie did teach her those parts, and it's not that Steph's worried about how gruesome it can be, but she's not good enough, and she doesn't want to waste anything due to a lack of skill.

So she sticks to the hunting, which is where she spends a few afternoons a week. She wears her Batgirl suit, sans cape and cowl, under a pair of jeans, a shirt and light coat, because the suit itself is heated, keeping her warm without layers that weigh her down. She picked up a rifle (illegally) while staying in New York, and she handles it with ease despite that whole no guns rule; it's been a long time since she's worried about that.

Mostly, she sticks to hares or rabbits, with the occasional penguin (though she always trade those, not wanting to take a dead bird back to the apartment she shares with an actual duck). The deer are tempting, and more than once she lines up a shot only to let it go, because she knows she can't haul the whole thing to a butcher. The smaller animals are easier to string up and carry back to civilization, even if it means she has to be extra careful about each shot, aiming for the head and succeeding nine times out of ten.

While she doesn't take any pleasure in killing, there's something familiar and reassuring in having to move silently through the woods, in the way she has to stop and listen for sounds of movement, in those final moments before she takes a shot. It's almost like being back on patrol, stalking criminals across the rooftops, spending hours on a stakeout, even though the snow covered woods is nothing like the streets of Gotham. It still helps, and she usually leaves the woods feeling better than when she went in.]

Comments

[kilimanjaro]

Hello. [He gives her a quick smile. She doesn't look familiar, which is a little strange considering how often Kili hunts around these parts. But he's still of the opinion it would be nice to have everyone that hunts at least meet each other once or twice. Hunting together is easier than hunting alone, after all.]

Aye, just didn't want to disturb whatever you're tracking. Perhaps I could help...?

[controlledvariable]

[That's - not what she expected, which is probably an oversight on her part, since she knows that a lot of Transports are too helpful for their own good.]

'Preciate it. [Not wanting to disturb what she's tracking, she means. The question itself gets a moment of pause, before:] Well, I'm pretty sure there's a few rabbits nearby, but I don't wanna scare 'em away from me. If you feel like circling around to scare them up towards me, I'll set one aside for you?

[That seems fair.]

[kilimanjaro]

[What can he say? Living here has rubbed off on him. It's funny how when he first got here, he was angry and scared and completely antisocial, and now he's offering help to strangers.

Weird.

He nods at the suggestion and offer before stealing away to the other side of where he's fairly confident the warren is at. He stops once he's found a suitable position and looks up across the little clearing to the girl, giving her a short nod and waiting for one in turn to make sure she's ready.]

[controlledvariable]

[She keeps her eyes on him, not wanting to lose sight of him in the underbrush, since she's going to be shooting, soon. When he waves, she gives a quick salute, then shifts into a ready stance.]

[kilimanjaro]

[At the sign, he surges out of the underbrush, making as much noise as is possible (which in Kili's case, is quite a lot). Hollering, stomping his feet...

Out from the warren shoots five rabbits. Kili's quick to nock an arrow to his bow and takes out one of them.]

[controlledvariable]

[Steph fires three times in quick succession, each resulting in a headshot, though she doesn't bother with the fourth because at a quick glance, the rabbit looks too small.

Still, four out of five isn't too bad, and once she's sure there aren't any more rabbits about to run out of anywhere, she lowers her gun and straights up, heading over to their kills.]

[kilimanjaro]

[Kili has never seen a gun or heard one go off before, so the sound startles him considerably. He jumps, staring up at the weapon in her hands with astonishment.]

What is that?

[controlledvariable]

[Well that's awkward.]

It's a rifle, a type of firearm.

[And since she has a feeling this is going to require a proper explanation, she needs a baseline:]

Do you have explosives where you're from?

[kilimanjaro]

[He's never heard of anything like that, so he shakes his head.]

Explosives? No, I don't think so. The word is unfamiliar to me.

[controlledvariable]

[Oh boy.]

Okay, lets grab the rabbits first, then I'll explain how a rifle works.

[At least she has a good grasp of the science behind it.]

[kilimanjaro]

[Kili nods, going to fetch the one he's killed and pulling the arrow free, cleaning it off in the snow before setting it back in his quiver.]

You have good aim with that...thing.

[controlledvariable]

[Steph just picks up her rabbits, giving them a quick look over before putting them in her game bag. At least the weather means everything stays fresh.]

I've had a lot of practice. [The principle behind grapple guns is similar.] You're pretty good with your bow.

[kilimanjaro]

[He laughs at that and nods.]

I picked up my first bow when I was a child, so I suppose I've had a lot of practice as well.

[You know. Like seventy years of it.]

[controlledvariable]

Well, that's definitely doing better than me, I didn't have much experience with firearms till I was sixteen.

[Which isn't to say there weren't guns in her house, just that her dad wouldn't let her near them.

Probably because he knew she'd try to shoot him.]

[kilimanjaro]

Isn't that a bit late for your kind?

[They have such short lives, after all.]

[controlledvariable]

[excuse]

Later than it could be, I guess, but we don't really encourage kids to use guns.

[Well. Theoretically.]

[kilimanjaro]

Oh.

[There's a brief pause.]

Then what weaponry did you start with?

[controlledvariable]

[That makes her laugh, not meanly, just amused, and in answer she holds up an empty hand before curling it into a fist.]

Couldn't really get my hands on any actual weapons until I was a teenager.

[kilimanjaro]

[Kili looks at her strangely.]

...Why not? I mean, for your people, you have such short lives. Shouldn't you be training as early as possible?

[controlledvariable]

Most of us don't really need to know how to fight.

[Not counting some self defence, but she figures that's not really what he's talking about.]

[kilimanjaro]

[He tilts his head to the side curiously.]

Really?

[controlledvariable]

A lot of people go through life without running into any sort of violence. We've got soldiers to fight our wars, and police officers to keep the streets safe from anyone who'd try to hurt people.

[a beat, and:]

I mean - that's the country I grew up in, there's places where you can't escape war, and kids are turned into soldiers, or people have to learn to fight to protect themselves, but that's not everywhere.

[kilimanjaro]

[Kili listens intently, interested.]

It sounds...nice. Safe. But what do you do?

[controlledvariable]

[She's not sure she'd call it safe, but she knows that Gotham isn't like most places, and she's generalizing a little anyway, thinking more of world's without superheroes, since hers seems to be an outlier.]

All sorts of things, kids and teenagers go to school, where they learn everything adults think they'll need to know for the world, and then most people get a job. Which can mean pretty much anything. My mom's a nurse, which is like a... healer? [is that the word she should be using?? anyway:] I'm learning to be a social worker, so I'd work with kids who don't have parets, or who couldn't live with their parents for whatever reason, and I'd help them find new families.

[That's simplifying things SO MUCH but it's a start, at least.]

[kilimanjaro]

[Kili supposes that isn't too different from what he's used to, but to be unable to defend yourself seems so strange.]

Interesting.