daryl dixon (dixonda) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-08-05 20:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, daryl dixon, kate bishop (hawkeye) |
Who: Kate Bishop and Daryl Dixon
When: Mid June
Where: An Archery Range
What: Daryl's decided to get some practice in and runs into Kate
Rating/Warnings: Low/Light cursing, and thoughts about zombies.
Status: Complete Upon Posting
He'd gotten two crossbows from his dreams so far, and to date he'd not used either one of them. It wasn't as if Daryl hadn't shot a crossbow before, hell, he'd gone hunting but he thought getting a little practice in might not hurt. One never knew what could happen in the OC and Daryl would be damned before he let anything happen to his family.
That word was enough to make a dumb grin pull up the corners of Daryl's mouth as he brought the crossbow up to his shoulder and looked down the sight. He held his breath for a moment until he hit the trigger. The bolt landed a little bit left of center, and he shook his head at himself before he loaded up another bolt.
During open gym hours all registered students at the school were welcome to come in and use the equipment and facility for free. Anyone who wasn’t a current student had to pay a small fee for the facility use, and another fee for equipment rental. Apparently, Kate’s boss, the guy who owned the place, would rather have regular customers than drop-ins, and Kate didn’t really mind one way or the other. She got paid either way.
Today was a relatively slow day, so when the guy came in off the street, she signed him in and showed him where he was welcome to use the targets. Then she lingered back to watch him aim, shoot, and reload.
“Try exhaling completely and holding your breath when you make the shot. It helps me focus.” She called out to him while he was putting another bolt in the bow.
Daryl glanced over his shoulder at the young woman, and gave a nod. "Alright, I'll try that. It's just been a while since I've shot a crossbow." God, could he even remember the last time he'd gone hunting? Not really. It'd been a good while before he'd left Georgia, and he'd actually managed to snag a couple of deer that season.
All legally too.
He inhaled deeply, and then exhaled slowly before holding his breath. The bolt flew straight, hitting his intended target. Good deal. He was extremely happy with his results, although shooting a moving target was completely different. Not that he was planning on doing much shooting on moving targets right now, but the OC did like to do weird shit. "Thanks for the tip. I guess I'd forgotten that one." He gave a small nod to the girl again as he reloaded.
“Hey, that’s what I’m here for.” Kate gave him a smile in return. “It sounds like you’re just a little rusty. Some practice is all you really need. But I can hang out and bark out tips, if you want me to.” She offered, almost playfully.
"Yeah, I really do need to brush up." In his dreams he didn't have this issue, and Daryl supposed that part of him had hoped that that would've leaked over. Apparently it had not, but hell, he could use the practice regardless. Chuckling, Daryl cast a quick glance over at the woman, "Course, I don't mind. Hell, keep me on my toes." Daryl shot again, landing a little off center from what he'd wanted and he shook his head, "I'm Daryl Dixon by the way."
“Kate Bishop.” Kate replied, watching his shot. Sometimes it was hard to turn off the teacher thing, especially where archery was concerned. She did so much of it day to day that she was stuck in that mode. There was a part of her that wanted to bring Clint in so she could check his form, and yet there was another part that didn’t. She didn’t want to be shown up in her own gym. Her eyes came back to Daryl from the arrow in the target, and she nodded. “Your form is good. Try again.”
Daryl gave a small inclination of his head in her direction at the introduction. Daryl loaded another bolt, a small half smile on his face. "Thanks." He replied simply, letting out a long breath before breathing in again to hold it while he squeezed the trigger. The bolt landed dead center, and he exhaled slowly. "Weird question, but do you have any targets that move?" He knew some places offered moving targets, but he wasn't sure about this place.
Kate nodded, smiling, when his bolt hit dead center. She wasn’t surprised, really. He had excellent form, and she wondered if he was one of those Dreamers whose Dream!Talents came through. It’d certainly improved her own game, and she should assume more often than not that other people were in the same situation.
“Yeah, we’ve got one of those things that launches clay pigeons.” Kate said. “It’s in the back, though. We’ve got a half acre out there fenced in for archery practice.” She motioned for him to come and follow her out there if he wanted to.
"Nice." Daryl replied with an approving nod. It'd be good practice for him to get in just in the event that some bad shit went down in the OC. Daryl wasn't going to let anything happen to his new little family, and well, by extension the other people on the network. They'd become a sort of family to him as well. He might not talk to most of them a lot, but still, he read their posts and sometimes felt their pain.
Following behind Kate, Daryl found himself outside in no time, and he took in a deep breath. It was nice out today, and for that he was grateful. His eyes squinted against the sun as he took up his position behind the line. "Ready when you are."
Kate had done this so many times she could do it in her sleep. She set up the clay pigeon machine and waited for Daryl to get himself situated. Once he was prepared, and told her he was ready, she let the first clay disc fly.
As the first clay disc flew, Daryl took in a deep breath and held it as he tracked it with the end of the crossbow. Thunk. The shot clipped the edge of the disc, and Daryl shook his head. He could do better, he'd shot Walkers in the head at a further distance. "Again." He stated after reloading, ready to do better this time.
Kate nodded. She watched as she sent out the next disc. His form was good, his aim was true. This was probably some kind of brain delay--something in his subconscious. Fear? Doubt? Worry? Those sorts of things could either be breathed out, or not. She had a feeling he was going to overcome this, and take down the clay disc. Even if it took a hundred tries.
Daryl watched his breathing, and as the next disk was sent out. He tracked it again, finger on the trigger and he squeezed. The bolt flew, clipping the edge again and Daryl shook his head. "I know I can do better than this." He breathed in and out as he loaded the crossbow up again, "Again." There was a definite look of determination on his face, and he was ready to do this.
Kate took a moment to let him breathe, then she spoke. “I could say something like, all Yoda-like and zen and shit? About how you have to be the bolt, how it’s an extension of you. But seriously, you got this. Just aim for where the disc’s gonna be, not where it is. Yeah?” Then she cleared her throat. “Ready?” After a heartbeat, she let the next one fly.
Daryl chuckled as he remembered something from his dreams, "Believe me, I'm pretty zen." Everyone else had been flipping their shit about the zombies, and there he was, going about killing them as if it wasn't a big deal. He'd really been zen back then, but now in the dreams things weren't so zen. "I gotcha." He knew what he needed to do, but getting his body to do it was well, a different thing. "Ready." He spoke just moments before the next one flew. He tracked it again, and then shot where he thought it was going to be. It hit the clay disc full on, shattering it. "There we go." Daryl replied with a smile, finally happy with his progress. "If you got a little more time, I wouldn't mind trying out a few more."
Kate let the next one fly, then grinned when it shattered into a thousand pieces. She stood up straight when he mentioned more time. “I have plenty more time. Hang on, I’ll go refill.” This was the best part of her job--helping people learn to use these instruments and therefore grow stronger and more self-confident.
Daryl gave a small inclination of his head in Kate's direction, "Alright, sounds good to me." He reloaded his crossbow, He was grateful for her help, and would be sure to come back here the next time he was wanting to practice. Daryl knew it was better to be safe than sorry here in the OC, and well, he did want to be prepared to help his family out if there were bad things that came out to play any time soon.