the coldness runs through my veins you know my name || OPEN

[unhand]

WHO || Hook and WHOEVER'S HANGING AROUND THE CASTLE
WHAT || Playing with guns
WHERE || Shooting range
WHEN || 2/28 daytime
HOW || WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT.

♬ Chris Cornell - You Know my Name

Hook still was getting used to this new world. He hadn't given up his usual black leather apparel, and he hadn't gone for some sort of new fake hand that may have been more functional or at least more normal looking than the hook.

What he had gotten used to was guns.

The Excalibur Pistol was simple enough to use, and amazingly powerful for such a little thing. Hook had decided pretty quickly that he liked it.

He leveled it at the target and shot. It clipped the edge of the target (atk 9). He frowned, readjusting the pistol. As simple a thing as it was, it seemed it would actually need some work for him to get actually good at using it. No matter, he had time to spare. He readjusted his gun and shot again (atk 11). It hit the target. Outer edge, but not bad for a man from a world where these things don't exist.

He held up the gun again, aiming carefully. Unbidden, he thought of Gold, the man Emma said he wanted to kill.

He pulled the trigger. The bullet sank into the dead center of the target (atk 23).

Well, now. Maybe he could get the hang of this thing after all.

Comments

[bittersweeter]

"Squeeze."

Wynn had said she could use all the amenities and Lila thought this counted, even if she had nothing to play with. Her last memory was of shooting someone. This, absurdly, felt like home.

Which was why she couldn't help speaking up, head of disheveled blonde hair peaking up from behind a barrier, her soft voice raspy and rough. "Don't pull the trigger, squeeze, as you breathe out."

Granted, he might not have wanted to take a teenager's word for it, so she straightened up slightly, leaning against the partition, chin up. She was someone else who didn't care if people notice her scars, though hers didn't come with anything quite so handy as a hook, just ash. (Though it begged the question, how did he do up his buttons?) "You are a beginner, aren't you?"

[unhand]

Hook glanced over at her, eyebrow raising a bit. She seemed a bit young to have experience with such a powerful weapon, but those scars told him that her life had been very interesting for one so young. He knew how that could be. So he nodded dubiously.

"Aye, I've used similar sorts of things before, but nothing so... small." And yet despite its size, it was ten times as powerful as any gun he'd wielded back in the Enchanted Forest or Neverland.

[bittersweeter]

"Size is no guarantee of power," Lila replied calmly. Maybe it sounded like she was talking about herself, but she was just lazily quoting Harry Potter. "Not to mention that it's more easily concealable than, say, a Mossberg. Or that stupid one in Snatch... Desert Eagle."

Tucking a wayward piece of woolly hair behind her ear, she dropped her chin into her hands, pale skin resting against the dark blue of her leather gloves. Her mismatched eyes studied the man in front of her, traveling up and down. It wasn't a once over, but an actual study of the way he held himself. "You might need to relax your shoulders a little, too. Think of it like a woman, don't force it. Challenge it."

[unhand]

Hook didn't understand her reference or have any idea what a Mossberg or a Desert Eagle might be, but he did understand how to challenge a woman. Just in case she had any doubts about his abilities with women, he shot her a flirty grin. "LIke a woman, huh? I can do that."

He lifted the gun again and turned towards the target, trying to be relaxed and caressing the gun a bit with his thumb before he took the shot (atk 9 which clipped the edge of the target). Perhaps he shouldn't have over thought it.

[bittersweeter]

Lila gave approximately no response to the smile given, at least no outward response. Inwardly, well, it didn't have much effect on her either. Nice smile, she could appreciate a decent smolder, but it reminded her of Barron's smile when he tried to play nice with her to get his way.

She wasn't a very good pet, she would be surprised if some of her bites hadn't left permanent scars.

Her lips pursed into the hint of a mocking smile when the man fired again, barely flinching at the sound. "I'd hate to be the woman you took aim at," she said with a hum of laughter. "Maybe for entertainment."

[unhand]

"I wouldn't be aiming to shoot a woman." He paused, considering his life and his choices, then shrugged. "Actually I would, I suppose." He smirked. "I wager you'd enjoy it if I squeezed your triggers." He winked at her, then turned back to the target, trying again. This time he worried less about her advice and more about just pointing and shooting. His style might have been off, but his aim was good (atk 16). His bullet thudded solidly into the target, a little bit off center.

[bittersweeter]

Lila arched an eyebrow slowly before scrambling over the partition with some grace. (Dex 15) She stepped up to the older man, not bothered at all by the fact that she was a foot shorter than him, a blond miniature in comparison. "I would really love to see you try," she said, her raspy voice a bit like a purr.

She held out a gloved hand between them. "But can I try first?"

[unhand]

He grinned down at her and handed her the gun. "All right. Show me what you can do." He would, of course, be willing to try. But he wasn't bothered one way or the other. He enjoyed flirting obviously. Whether or not it actually led anywhere wasn't really relevant.

[bittersweeter]

Lila took the gun in her hands gently, getting a feel for it's size and weight as she stepped away. It was smaller than the last gun she'd fired, but it fit nicely in her tiny hands.

She settled herself in front of the target, shifting until the weapon felt comfortable in her hand. She would be fair and shoot one handed, she knew both techniques. Part and parcel of her criminal education. And if (when) she showed up the flirt with the hook, she didn't want the crutch of using both hands. Lila would be better under the same circumstances.

Breathing out slowly, she fired. (Attack nat 20!) Lowering the gun, she turned back, a lazy smirk lifting her lips. "You can take credit for that, if you'd like." She held out the gun for him to take back, the implication in her tone that it might be the only bull's eye to ever grace his target.

[unhand]

He scoffed. "I'll take credit for my own shots, darling." One of his had come pretty close, after all. He took back the gun, aimed, and fired (atk 14), bullet thumping a bit to the right of the bull's eye. "Might take a bit of work, but I can get there."

[bittersweeter]

"You seem like a fast learner at least." Lila was sure she had been learning for a while, at least before she was catted, so there was a few years of leeway.

She leaned back against the barrier, nonchalant. "Everything worthwhile takes work."

[unhand]

"Oh, I know it." Three hundred years in Neverland, and what had he been working for? He didn't remember. Just that Emma had said it was about revenge on that Mr. Gold bloke with the crocodile. It all felt very distant and hard to think about.

"I've never been opposed to a bit of work. Usually pays off." Unless he forgot what he was doing when sidetracked to another dimension.

[bittersweeter]

Absently, Lila touched a gloved finger to her throat. No, she wasn't opposed to work, either.

Pushing away from the wall a bit, so only her shoulders remained against it, Lila studied him. "So aside from Mr Tall, Blonde and Intimidating, I haven't actually met anyone of worth paying attention to. Until now." Her lips curved up into a smirk, something that graced her face far more often than a genuine smile. For Lila is was close enough. And there was something there in it, a promise, a favor for a favor. (Cha 21) "Feel like taking pity on me and giving me the cliffnotes version of this place?"

[unhand]

Hook knew enough about smirks being easier than genuine smiles. He had one on his face that matched hers, though not, perhaps, quite as lovely (cha 16). "Perhaps," he said, studying her right back. He stepped in closer, closer than most people would be comfortable with, but he didn't touch her. "What I know of it, anyway. I haven't been here long myself. Tell me something first, love." He reached up and presses a finger lightly against her scar. "How did you get this?"

[bittersweeter]

That accent was like warm butter on toast and really, Lila would have enlightened him, but she was fairly certain he already knew. When he stepped closed, she tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, looking up at him from underneath pale lashes. She let it drag between her teeth, bitten red, when she felt him touch her scar.

It didn't hurt any more, healed but still pinkish and black from the ash packed into it. Didn't make it any less... intimate, to have someone other than Cassel touch it.

"A knife." The reality was that she didn't know the answer, because she didn't know who did it. She could guess, because she knew how the ceremony went, but she didn't have the memories of her own so any answer aside from the flippant would be just that -- a guess.

[unhand]

"Didn't think it came from a kiss." He glanced back up at her, letting his finger drop away just as lightly. "Was hoping for a bit more detail, though given the nature of this place, suppose you might not remember." It would be a shame, though. The injury was certainly an interesting one. He'd like to hear the story.

[bittersweeter]

"My father did it." She held his gaze a moment, before elaborating further. She wasn't ashamed of it, in fact, she was proud of her marks. Just as proud as she had been when she took them, even with that lingering shade of resentment. The resentment wasn't her dad's fault, at least she knew that -- well, mostly.

"It's proof that I joined my family. They call it the Zacharov necklace."

[unhand]

"Some family traditions you've got." But who was he to talk? He'd lost a hand to get his a nickname.

[bittersweeter]

Lila bristled slightly, eyes flashing and her shoulders straightening just so. Like most people, she was allowed to talk badly about her family, but any slight, even perceived ones, from anyone else got her back up. But she was raised in an environment when family came first and screw everyone else, her reaction was ingrained in her DNA.

"They could be worse. We had equal primogeniture before the Queen." She meant Queen Elizabeth, of course, because she's a teenager from New York, England's queen is the only one she knew.

[unhand]

Hook, hailing from the Enchanted Forest, didn't know Queen Elizabeth. He knew Queen Regina and Cora, Queen of Hearts, and he really had no idea what the primogeniture of the Enchanted Forest was these days anyway.

"Yes, I'm certain that makes scarring children entirely worth it."

[bittersweeter]

Wondering if the man realized how easily she could kick him in the groin, or how fast she could get her gloves off and her hands laced through his hair until his was a sleepwalking ball of putty, or even how easy it would be to take the gun away and beat him to death with it, her hands curled into tiny fists. She could feel the pressure of her nails through her gloves but it wasn't nearly as helpful to her self control as her nails digging into her skin would be.

The only reason she hadn't done anything yet was because she wanted information and while he was shaping up to be worthless in that department, she hadn't dried the well yet.

"Everyone takes the marks. Just because I'll be the head of the family doesn't make me different. I told you how I got my scar, you tell me what you know." Her arms cross against her chest, better to keep her hands from violence. Fair was fair, she'd held up her end, it was his turn now.

[unhand]

Unfortunately, Hook really didn't know much (knowledge 11). It wasn't a particularly fair bargain. Still, he did his best to comply. "Well, it's a castle. Filled with knights. And... electricity." They didn't really have electricity where he was from. He was still getting used to it. "Then there are squires, like you and me, darling, who'll probably become knights if we behave." Meaning Hook wasn't necessarily going to make it. Whoops. "Any questions?"

[bittersweeter]

Ugh. Worthless. She should have saved herself the trouble and just kicked him. She had sorted that all out in about the time it took her to walk from the front desk to Wynn's room.

"None that you'll have the answers to," she murmured, somehow managing to be derisive and uninterested at the same time. The apathy was strong in this one. She stepped back, he seemed to have reached the end of his usefulness to her and considering the chances of his scruffy charm working on her was slim to slimmer, well, was there even a point to sticking around?

Although... She paused, maybe there was one question. "How did you lose your hand?"

[unhand]

"No clue." That wasn't quite true. Emma had given him a name, and he'd matched the name to a face. But he didn't know. He didn't remember it happening. As much as he disliked working with the man he presumed was his enemy, the animosity kept pushing up against the fact that he couldn't remember being wronged by the man.

[bittersweeter]

Lila's nose wrinkled in distaste. She could ask another question, one that would be obvious and polite,considering they had just carried on an entire conversation. But, honestly, Lila could not actually care less about this man's name. She could try, but she didn't think he was worth the trouble.

She made a conversational little hum. "Try not to shoot yourself," she finally said, turning to walk away. Lila wasn't really one for niceties.