Will Laurence (gentlemanly) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-09-01 12:43:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, temeraire: william laurence, ₴ inactive: brigitte lindholm |
Who: Laurence and Brigitte
What: Laurence goes to procure some weapons
When: Recently
Where: Papa's Pride
Warnings: Fun with guns, but nothing really
Laurence was taking Evie’s advice to heart, and at his first opportunity, he looked up Papa’s Pride Workshop. He was more proud than he likely ought to have been in locating the shop on the internet, and then finding directions and navigating the Waypoints for the first time by himself, but he did take a moment to congratulate himself (and then reprimand himself for doing so) before he approached the shop.
He thought he was adjusting to life in Vallo as well as could be expected, all things considered. It wasn’t the first, or even the second time that life as he knew it had been upended. But one thing Laurence could not adjust to was the price of goods and services. While he could estimate, to some degree of accuracy, what a sword and pistol would have cost him in Britain or New South Wales, he could not begin to imagine what the cost would be in Vallo. He was certain that he’d not be able to afford anything custom made with what remained of the $1000 he’d been given upon his arrival, but he hoped that he’d at least be able to get something that was ready made.
“Hello?” he called, entering the shop.
At the sound, Brigitte lifted her head up quickly and sharply, banging it against the metal shell of the exoskeletal shell she was working on for Ezekial and Jake. Wincing, she retreated down the stepstool and jogged over to the front of the shop and lifted the safety goggles from her eyes to the top of her head. This resulted in a very clean portion of her face around the eyes and grease smudges on the rest, like a reverse raccoon.
That didn't stop her ready smile, though. "I really need to hire someone to work the front," she noted, stepping into view, before she saw who had entered. "Oh! Captain Laurence! Welcome back! Is Temeraire with you?"
Laurence started, and then tried to peer at the woman underneath the grime. He was near certain that he'd never met her before - he'd never known any woman blacksmiths, had rarely interacted with a blacksmith directly at all - but he supposed it was possible that she's had a career change once she's been relocated to Vallo.
"Not Captain anymore, I'm afraid," he said, a little worried over the fact that he felt absolutely no recognition at all. He'd always done well at remembering faces, even the rare time when a name wasn't immediately available, but there was nothing. "And I've had no word of Temeraire since I arrived. You'll have to forgive me, it seems I've forgotten where we'd last met."
Brigitte's smile didn't even suffer a dent, but she shook her head and pulled off her gloves. "Not your fault, it's pretty common for people to return and not remember their previous visits. I'll just cross fingers and hope Temeraire joins you again." She approached her guest and extended a hand. "In that case, Brigitte Lindholm. Blacksmith, Engineer, general all around maker of anything and everything."
Laurence wasn't quite sure how to handle that. He'd been told by Mr. Frye that Temeraire had been here before, but Laurence had assumed that Temeraire had made the trip on his lonesome. The idea that he had been here before and had simply forgotten the whole thing… He wondered if there were any here who'd considered him a friend, and what they knew of him. It was dreadful not knowing a part of yourself that others, apparently, did.
Still, he shoved that aside for now, as this wasn't the time nor the place to examine the implications, especially since Brigitte seemed more than willing to move past them.
Laurence shook her hand and attempted to offer a smile, hoping that none of his unease came through. "A pleasure, Miss Lindholm. You come very highly recommended by Dame Frye."
"Evie's a regular!" beamed Brigitte, turning to usher Laurence into the main sales area. "Okay, here's all my ready-made equipment. If I remember correctly, you're a sword and pistol man, so I won't push you towards axes, zweihanders, or lighter weapons. I've worked out some lightweight ballistic weave, though, so you may be interested in the new armor line. Looks and feels like a regular coat, protects you from bullets and melee weapons!" She began gesturing at walls covered in weapons, armor, and other sundry items ranging from medieval styles to futuristic sci-fi designs. Maybe Captain Laurence would -- oh, he'd told her before that he'd lost his Captaincy for a while, maybe this Laurence was from that period of his life. Maybe Ex-Captain Laurence would be interested in a lightsaber and rail pistol?
Laurence forced his mind not to latch onto Brigitte’s memory of Laurence’s preferred weapons by examining the armoured coat. It was fine, and he thought that he could perhaps commission one in a similar cut and colour to his aviators uniform once he was planted more firmly on his feet - he doubted very much he’d be able to afford even a ready-made jacket, especially if he was planning on purchasing weapons today. He resisted the urge to reach out and touch it, to see how the fabric felt against the skin. He could hardly believe that it could stop bullets, except that he’d just arrived at the forge by way of a magical teleportation system.
“I’m afraid I’m slight of funds right now,” Laurence said, turning his attention from the coat to the other weapons hanging on the walls. Some of them were familiar - some old-fashioned even by his standards - and even more of them were so foreign that he could scarcely make sense of them at all. “I was hoping you might have something simple but serviceable to hold me over until I’ve had a chance to become more settled.”
Waving her hand dismissively, Brigitte moved towards several of her revolvers and tried to find one she thought Laurence would like. She could probably put together something that looked like a powder-loader, but the inefficiency of those types of weapons meant she'd never actually want to arm someone with one. "You might be happy to know, then, that I let new people set up a tab. I'd rather you be able to defend yourself and others here in Vallo than worry about your finances when danger strikes."
Settling on a design she'd originally put together for Henry before she'd known about his personal attachment to his current pistols, she turned to offer it to her customer. "It's modeled after a Colt Frontier, but it's weather- and water-proof. It can fire standard ballistic ammunition, but I've also worked out some specialty ammo for those tricky situations!" She smiled and opened a drawer full of bullets, some marked with little snowflakes or flames or something that looked similar to a WiFi symbol.
“I am glad to hear it,” Laurence confirmed. He had no bank notes or anything to show that he was good for his credit, and so he’d not expected such a thing, but he supposed it could only make sense for a place that had so many people coming with nothing, especially if, as Evie claimed, the forests were filled with dangers.
Laurence took the pistol in his hand. It was like no pistol he had seen - those of his time were smoother in design, and if he wasn’t misjudging the use of the wheel in the centre, this pistol could hold more than one bullet at a time. “Waterproof, you say. How do you prevent the powder from getting wet?” He could remember throwing his pistol at the face of a Frenchman during a boarding action on Temeraire because of wet powder; the pistol had been irrevocably lost.
He frowned then, and turned the pistol over in his hands, not seeing where one was to load the powder at all.
"Welcome to the Future," answered Brigitte brightly. She picked up the matching pistol, because of course they came in a pair, and pulled back the loading pin. With a flick of the wrist, she opened the chamber to show Laurence where the shells were loaded in, then reached into the drawer to pick up a few shells of standard ammunition.
"You can load them one at a time, if you'd like. Some people find it soothing, which is interesting with it being a weapon, but I don't judge. Or for those in a hurry, I have some loaders which can give you the ability to preload bullets, then use it to drop in all six at once." After dropping in a few loads, she closed and spun the cylinder and gestured to the door. "To answer your question, though, each shell has the powder self-contained. If you'd like to step outside, I've got a few targets you can practice on?"
“Will the wonders ever cease,” Laurence asked, a touch playfully. It was, of course, a stroke of genius to have the powder contained in the ballistics themselves - no more of the mess and the wasted powder trying to pour it in in the midst of battle - and a pistol that could contain multiple balls at once was only a matter of time. Compared to the wonders of instant communication, the internet,refrigeration, and hot showers (possibly the favourite of all future technologies that Laurence had discovered so far), it barely rated. He could hardly wish for any innovations that would make it easier for men to kill one another. Still, he felt a boyish excitement for the chance to test them.
“Yes, I think I must,” Laurence said. “If you’ll lead the way, Miss Lindholm.”
"Absolutely!" Then the tell-tale sign of inspiration hit and Brigitte held up a finger before running back into the shop. A scant moment later and she was trotting past Laurence, holding the aforementioned ballistic weave coat. Moments after that, she had led him around the side of the building to the firing range and was settling the coat around the shoulders of one of the jelly targets.
While holding down the controls to move the targets further back down the range, Brigitte looked over her shoulder and smiled. "I'll spare you the science but the targets are intended to give you an impression of how the damage from the ammunition actually impacts. So if you shoot the coat, you'll see how the body wearing it might react. Which, in this case, shouldn't be more than a slight shudder as the weave absorbs the impact. If you shoot the naked bust next to it, you'll see how it actually works on something more unprotected."
With that, she stepped back and put on some noise-canceling headphones and offered Laurence a pair.
Laurence took the headphones, turning them over in his hand and wondering over their use. While it wasn’t warm, it could scarcely be called chilly either, so they couldn’t be for warmth. Still, he followed Brigitte’s lead and placed them over his ears, and immediately marveled at how muted the world had become. He wondered if something like this might prevent the ringing in his ears after battle, or when Temeraire used his Divine Wind.
He was pleased that Brigitte had brought out the jacket, though also a little anxious lest he should ruin it. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her, he simply couldn’t picture it.
He took a dueling stance, body perpendicular to the target, his arm extended, and fired the first shot. It went high - Laurence had expected there to be a delay in the firing between his pulling the trigger and the actual shot, and he’d not expected the strength of the recoil. He made the mental adjustments and fired again, and from the impact he saw in the fabric, he knew he was closer to his target. He put two more into the coat, these both landing more or less where he had hoped, and then emptied the final two bullets in the revolver into the undressed mannequin.
Then, he looked at the pistol with no small amount of wonder. How much easier it had been than what he was used to. Quicker, and more accurate than he’d been expecting. He glanced at the bare mannequin he’d shot at, taking note of what damage he could see at this distance - less than a musquet, but more, he suspected, than the pistols of his own time. He wondered to himself just how much warfare may have changed in the last two-hundred years.
“I’m not quite sure what to make of this,” he admitted after a moment, turning his attention to Brigitte.. “But it is very easy to handle.”
"A sharpshooter stance," observed Brigitte, nodding. "I'm glad you like it. We often find ourselves having to face off against all kinds of horrific creatures. I could go on for hours listing off what's been through here in just the time I've been on the island. Having handy weaponry and armor is a must." She winked and pulled out three more shells, with the flame, snowflake, and curved lines. "Want to try a specialty shell? I've got flameburst, which will essentially cover the target in flames like a tiny fireball. Frostburst if you want to freeze your target in its tracks. And sonicburst for anything susceptible to auditory damage. Variety is the spice of life, I've heard!"
She passed the shells over to Laurence, willing to let him fire them if he wished. Or not, entirely up to him. "Pistols are six hundred each, or one thousand for the pair. I can check with Henry to see if he can do up a holster of your choice to carry them. Are you a hip or chest carrier? Or do you even know a preference?"
Laurence had heard her mention the specialty ammo before, and had meant to ask her about it, but then he’d been so distracted by the basic pistol itself that he’d forgotten all about it. He examined the bullets in his hand now, resisting the urge to ask how they worked. It was either magic or technology, and there was very little difference in either right now, as far as Laurence was concerned, and he was very unlikely to understand any in depth explanation. Better to just accept that they worked.
After some contemplation, he loaded the one with the curved lines, assuming that it was the one that caused auditory damage - the others were obviously marked, and he remembered how the falling snow had rippled out in front of Temeraire’s Divine Wind; it hadn’t looked unlike this.
“Are you ready?” Laurence asked, and once he was sure she was, he fired.