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

[unhand]

He didn't repeat it, though his logic was the best, thank you very much. Instead he raised his eyebrows at her.

"Seeing why you like 'em," he said, reaching up to tug at them lightly. "Makes it easier for you not to listen."

[uncurse]

"That's the idea behind earmuffs." Emma pointed it out blandly, eyeing him for a moment then reaching up to swat his hands away from her. It was obvious enough that he didn't mean for his dig to be restricted to the range - he meant to accuse her of not listening in general. But, she didn't find she had anything worth hearing.

[unhand]

"Should try going without for a bit. Might be a bit more dangerous, but it's also more real." He leaned in a bit closer. "Maybe you'll like the bang."

[uncurse]

Like that girl you left the after party with did?

There was annoyance in the way she looked up at Hook then, a hard look. Her tongue pressed to the inside of her cheek.

"I go without every time I use it outside the range. I don't need five clips of practice shots to take my hearing out and make it so when I do need to use it, I can't hear well enough to get the heads up." She looked past him to his target, a smile creeping into her expression.

"And considering how well you seem to be doing, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say handguns aren't standard issue for pirates. So, maybe you should admit that there's a good chance I know a great deal more about the danger and reality of these than you do." She raised her gun, turning from him. The shoulder of the arm holding the gun was brushing up against his chest from the closeness, but she leaned over and fired off a few shots.

They all cluster just to the left of the bullseye, in the target circle just outside of it. Some of the paper of the target is torn into the bullseye from the power of the hits (atk 19, 17, 18).

[unhand]

...that was surprisingly hot. He looks at the cluster of bullets, then back at her. "Impressive. I'll get the silly earmuffs." He raised a finger. "On one condition." He taps her gun arm. "Show me how it's done."

She was right about one thing. They weren't standard issue for pirates. He'd used similar weapons, but nothing so light and efficient. He was slowly figuring it out, but he hadn't had much practice.

And more importantly, he wanted to spend more time with Emma.

[uncurse]

Emma looked reproachful, not least of all because there didn't seem to be anything in this bargain for her, but she seemed to be relenting a little bit even before she made her first deflection.

"Don't you have a Knight for that?"

[unhand]

Hook shook his head. "I'd rather you did it. He's not as pretty as you." And he wasn't certain Thoster was any more familiar with the modern weapons than Hook was.

[uncurse]

"Good. Then maybe you'll be able to focus on what he's telling you instead of mooning over him." Emma turned on the safety, set her gun on the table, and turned to look at him, hands on her hips. "I don't care who you'd rather did it. I'm sure you've made friends you could ask."

[unhand]

"Friends? What friends..." he trails off, realisation dawning, and then he can't hold back a triumphant grin. "You're jealous."

[uncurse]

"What?" Her voice is all sharp, dismissive incredulity.

[unhand]

"That girl." He thinks for a moment, but it comes to him before long (wis 19). "Faye."

[uncurse]

"Oh, she has a name." Emma smiles blithely, looking up at him. "I don't think jealous is really the word. Try something closer to pissed off."

[unhand]

"Or a mix of both." He smiles back at her, quirking an eyebrow. "Admit it. If it'd been you I'd been in bed with, you wouldn't have cared that it was your bed."

Obviously, Hook. Then it would make SENSE to be in her room.

[uncurse]

"It's my room! If it were me in bed with anyone, I wouldn't have cared!"

Emma is far from above pointing out the obvious misstep in Hook's logic. Besides, it made for a good derailment of his suspicion of jealousy.

[unhand]

"And you'd have cared just as much if I was in anyone else's bed with her." Maybe not quite as much. But he wasn't going to let the jealousy thing go. "Don't pretend you're indifferent to that bit."

[uncurse]

"No. I'm not. But, it isn't jealousy." She turns to face him more fully, giving him her attention. There's a hard edge of disappointment and frustration in her eyes - and not the sexy wanting him kind. "It's pity. Does she know you didn't sleep with her until after you'd tried with me?"

[unhand]

"No idea. But the whole affair was her idea. I didn't get the sense she cared." He didn't much care either. It was just sex for the sake of sex. "You told me to dance with others. You weren't interested."

[uncurse]

"You don't have much sense of a lot of things," Emma returned scathingly, because he wasn't known for his ability to be sensitive, and that much was even more clear now. Whether Faye would be bothered or not, he obviously hadn't cared enough to ask and confirm that she wouldn't be slighted that she was a stand-in for another. "And I'm still not interested." Because, newsflash, Hook: this is not the way to make her change her mind on that.

[unhand]

"So I'll still seek other companionship." He shot her an annoyed look. "Shouldn't you be pleased I'm going after other women? Instead of finding every possible excuse to disapprove." Yes, the fact that they had sex in her bed is definitely an excuse.

[uncurse]

"I don't care what other women you go after, just don't chase them into my bed!"

Genuine offense entered her retort, because it wasn't even a matter of jealousy at this point. It was honest-to-God bafflement that he wasn't seeing the real root of the issue here, because he wanted so badly to believe it did have something to do with jealousy.

[unhand]

"That was an honest mistake. Wouldn't have done it in there if I knew it was yours." Admittedly, he hadn't much time trying to figure out whose room it was once Faye got him there. He was a bit distracted, really.

[uncurse]

"How reassuring," there was sourness in the way she said it, but she just rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she turned away from him to once more look down range. "Get lost. Find someone else to teach you; I'm not interested."

[unhand]

"Emma..." There was a certain vulnerable note in his voice. A note he didn't often let through, and one he certainly didn't want to let slip now either. But he also didn't want Emma to be mad at him.

He'd made the wrong move at the party. He wasn't certain how he thought things would play out, if he thought Emma would get jealous and prove she wanted him, or more likely, he hadn't thought much at all past pretty girl. Whatever it was, he was pretty sure it hadn't been worth it.

"I don't know what you expect of me."

[uncurse]

The sound of his voice crept under her skin, gnawing at her reason. It was the same tone he'd used when he demanded to know, couldn't possibly understand, why she was leaving him behind on the beanstalk. When she'd hurt him, and given him cause to hurt her back.

"Right now, I mostly expect you to walk away."

She kept her voice even, but she couldn't stop herself from looking at him. She didn't want to see the look in his eyes. Didn't want to dare touching the vulnerability because it'd only bring her closer to him and lessen her resolve. It had been hard enough leaving him up there, but it'd been the right call. She had to believe that.

Except she couldn't avoid that closeness entirely, because her words had an added meaning she hadn't meant to slip through. That was the whole problem. He was too much like Neal, too stark a reminder. And she just kept expecting he'd turn around and walk away one day, too. That expectation continued to hold her back.

[unhand]

Instead, he moved closer, lowering his voice to hide some of the vulnerability. "Suppose you've made that all too clear. Too bad for you, I excel at being unexpected."

He turned slightly, aiming his gun at her target while still standing far too close to her. He squeezed the trigger. It was a good shot (atk 18), thudding hard into the target near the center. Then he looked back at her.

"Besides, I was here first."