3176/You Know How to Shoot, Don't You

You Know How to Shoot, Don't You
Date of Scene:	17 November 2017
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Skye has a happenstance meeting with Lara Croft on the archery range. They talk. Skye gets some pointers. Nobody got hurt, and the possibility exists they'll speak to one another again! Will wonders never cease?
Cast of Characters:	Quake, Lara Croft

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Quake has posed:
Surprisingly, Skye has been spending a lot less time in the breakroom on her these days. The closer time gets to mission go, the less she seems to be hooked up intravenously to the thing - unless she's hiding in her room, avoiding been seen altogether, and given the number of times she ha had to be forcibly reminded to take a break, eat, or go outside for some fresh air, the possibility exists that she really may have taken that route.

Or.. perhaps it's that she's actually taking a break, eating real food, and getting some sunshinee. At the very least, whatever the truth is, today she's in the training area of the Triskelion, at the firing ranges in particular, and specifically, using a bow. Just a run of the mill, regular practice bow, nothing fancy. Perfect for learning on before moving up to fancier stuff.

She's working on her stance by the looks of it, muttering to herself as she makes minute shifts, sights the targets, and shifts her position again. Notably: she draws with her right hand, but is sighting with her left eye. No wonder the girl is taking so long to get things into position.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara Croft was a regimented person, she had been since she was a child... her parents and her parents employees had seen to that. As such, in her young adult years now, she was strictly stuck to her daily routine - which is why she's now in the gym and moving to the same target range that Skye is at.

Lara steps up to a spot a couple down from Skye, she sets down all of her gear... a black quiver lined with fancy arrows and a rather expensive and technical looking compound longbow with all the bells and whistles that Hawkeye might have on one of his own.

Lara takes a second to unzip her black running jacket, setting it down on the little chair behind her. She's otherwise dressed in a black tanktop and black tracksuit pants. She pulls a pair of archery gloves out ofher pocket and starts to strap them onto her hands.

Quake has posed:
Skye continues to mutter to herself. It had looked and seemed so much easier when Clint was helping her. Somehow the minute adjustments he'd made to her stance, holding her in place and correcting her whenever she'd make to move out of the position.. Where was it her foot was supposed to be? Forward that little bit, or was she supposed to be holding it back. She knew one of the two were right, but couldn't remember which, and because of her hand/eye issue, neither of them felt right at all.

"Oh, for fuck's sakes." The epitath was given with gusto as, deciding to go with foot forward, she nocks an arrow and draws, aiming for the target. Well, mostly. There's that compensation thing she has to do.

The arrow is let loose. Surprisingly (or perhaps not) it makes it all the way down the range. It does not, however, hit the target. Too much compensation. And maybe that foot really should have been back. Skye's still not sure. This whole practice by herself thing wasn't going so great.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was in the process of stepping up to her gear again when she looked up to see Skye's shot miss and she heard the woman curse. This drew Croft's brown eeys over to the woman and she couldn't help but observe her for a moment... she could see that Skye's general body language indicated someone who was frustrated, to say the least...

"Are you okay?" She had to ask then, reaching out for her high-tech bow that she lifted up and leaned back against her body while its lower limb was down on the floor in front of her shoes.

Archery wasn't a very common weapon in SHIELD, these ranges were almost always empty of anyone except her or Clint and even the two of them pretty much never saw each other here and were always left to shoot alone.

Quake has posed:
Skye had been trying to ignore the fact that she'd been joined on the range. Lara was right, the place was rarely attended. And as it happened, a certain Clint Barton was actually why a certain Skye Johnson had also found herself here. Of course she'd hit the gun range first for shooting practice, partly because it was good form, and she could use the honing of her skills, even though they weren't horrible; partly because it served as a decoy for the fact that she was also here, learning to use the bow.

When Lara asks, Skye looks over, bow held undrawn, and lowered now.

"Do I sound okay?"

The snark was typical Skye, but even so, it didn't hold her full edge today. Her frustrations were such that she didn't really feel like rising to full out Skye level snapping at the other woman - especially as Lara looked like she might, ultimately, be of some help.

"I can't figure out where to put my feet. And my targetting is off."

She was never going to win that future bet at this rate.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was used to snark and attitude around SHIELD, most of the people here were former military or police... She was... former civilian, she got treated like it too.

She took a breath in between her lips and then would turn around to face the womand and took a step toward her. "I can try to help." She offered, her British accented voice was calm and smooth. "Take another shot, let me observe how you move."

Lara crossed her own bow over her lap and held onto its limbs with both of her hands in front of her thighs, watching Skye now. "Your form is everything, when it comes to this and... once you have the muscle memory down you'll do it without even thinking."

Quake has posed:
Skye makes a sour expression. "It's the form that's killing me," the woman admits. She knows it. The bow picked up and held in her hand, staring at it for a moment before she laughs at herself and switches the thing to her left hand. "Might help if I remembered that bit, huh?"

The bow is held up in her left hand, and waggled at Lara. "Muscle memory. I need it. Forgot I was supposed to be trying this with my left."

She gives an easy shrug, and goes back to figuring out her stance with the intent of shooting an arrow off that Lara might see and offer suggestions. Not surprisingly, her form improves drastically when she does it this way; the fact of being able to sight without overcompenstating with her stance draws her well back into line.

This shot only *narrowly* misses the target. If she'd taken a moment or two longer to line things up, Skye would have hit it.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara would offer a comforting smile while observing. "I understand entirely." She told her. "My mentor first began to teach me when I was very young, but only majorly begaan to scrutinize my form with it when I was in my teenage years. Thats when I went from just a casual to... whatever it is I am now." She'd show a sly grin before falling silent to observe the other waoman shoot...

Lara glanced to her right to watch the arrow just narrowly miss and she exhaled and then reached out. "Here, hold your position at your fire." She told Skye, reaching for her hand that was holding onto the bow's grip. "You're tensing up as you shoot, causing this wrist to come up in the last moment... which is completely negating your aim when you release the string." Lara would try apply a little pressure to Skye's wrist then.

"Keep this hand strong in its place, don't let it bend backward when you release..."

Quake has posed:
The draw was held, letting Lara adjust the position of her hand and fingers *just so*. "Well, considering I've just picked up the thing, I can't complain too much. I just thought.." Skye laughs softly and wryly. "I was trying to impress someone. I thought if I came and practiced on my own and got better I'd surprise them."

To her credit, she takes directions well. It seems the serious, studious way she applies herself to her hacking carries through to numerous tasks, this included. But it's easier said than done on the tensing up thing. She's tensing because it's unfamiliar. And because it's her off-hand for most everything else.

The pressure at her wrist helps. Skye getting a feel for hhow the line of her wrist from hand to forearm should sit. The woman taking a long moment to study that line, committing it to memory that she might try to replicate it at a later time.

The adjustments all made, Skye holds again, "How's this? Any better?"

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara would show a grin at the woman's admission to wanting to impress someone. "I see." She replied pointedly. "Well... that is adorable, if a bit concerning... at least in the regard of dedication to the art itself."

Lara would take a step back then to watch her form as she drew again. She'd detach an arrow from hr own bow's body and then flip it around so she could tap the fletching-side of the arrow softly against Skye's back hip. "Even your stance. Don't let your hip flare out backward... put the majority of your weight on your front foot."

Lara would exhale softly then and look down range to the target. "If you can setup a Checklist of things to do every time you come here to shoot, your muscle memory will become far more efficiently educated and learned. Doing the precise same steps over and over with each shot..." She put her eyes back onto Skye's face. "It'll help you do things like not forget which hand to use."

Quake has posed:
"Hey, it's not the only reason," Skye returns quickly. Perhaps a bit too quickly. "It's good to have a fallback." Like she was voluntarily giving up her tech.. It would be a cold, dark day in hell before that happened. But she was right, it didn't hurt to have fallbacks. And while her gun was probably the better bet.. Eons of human history had men and women doing things to impress someone they had their eyes upon. It might actually amuse some that at the heart of it all, Skye was actually human.

The hip.. ah, right. That she remembered. Clint had spent a lot of time correcting her on that. She had a bad habit of cocking herself at an odd angle. She might have remembered that better if she hadn't spent so much time teasing him with that very thing while he was correcting her. Though, in her defense, she'd been enjoying his hands on approach to showing her how her hips should align. It was coming back to bite her now, though. Mental note: Pay more attention to the task, Skye, not the man. *ahem*

"Checklist. Gotcha. Though wouldn't mind help with that?" Her brow furrows some as she lines up her sight with the target. "And the hand thing, totally a dumb move on my part. Do most everything else right handed. Turns out it's a problem if you sight with your left eye. Just picked up the bow and put it in the hand I do everything else with. How's it looking from where you stand?"

Her position held for the moment, waiting for any last minute corrections.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara wasn't a flirtatious person, when it came to how human beings interacted with one another? She prefered not to be around them. She was antsy in the city, uncomfortable and borderline unhappy even. Things like this is what helped her relax and find some peace while not out and on an expedition... She'd never really even tried to attract someone, or impress them and if she did, it'd probably be laughable.

"Having this as a fallback has helped me... stay alive." She'd say quietly with a faint smile before observe Skye's adjusted form after she pulled her hip back in. Lara would raise the butt-end of that arrow to lightly tip at Skye's drawing elbow. "Up a bit... keep the arrow pulled back ato the side of your cheek near to your nose..." She'd exhale then and look down range again. "Now... hold... this position. Its imperative that you do not move your bow arm until you hear the arrow hit the target."

She looked back to Skye's eyes. "Do not be your worst enemy when it comes to losing your aim, let the arrow strike the target before you move after releasing the string."

Quake has posed:
There's an absent sort of nod from the woman as she listens. Arm is moved up just that titch as instructed. It felt weird, but if she thought back on her first days learning to use her gun.. that had felt weird too. She had kept wanting to give the thing back, telling them it wasn't for her. And now? She was a decent shot now. Maybe more than decent. Not a sniper by any accounts, but she could hold her own. Even better if she had time to.. well, exactly this. Time to find her position and use it. And even so, she was getting much better at on the move firing. It was actually something she was a tiny bit proud of - who'd have thought the hacker could use a gun?

And now she was adding bow to the repetoire?

The arrow is shot, hitting the target. It would be a flesh wound worthy of Monty Python if it had been an actual target, but it was still a hit. And, because she's been told to, Skye holds her position until she hears that unmistakeable *thunk!* of sound. "Okay, but why am I holding until it hits the target? That so I don't move my stance until after the arrow has fully left?" It's about the only explanation that makes sense to her, but she wouldn't be surprised if there were another reason.

Lara Croft has posed:
"Good shot." Lara said after observing the arrow soaring down range and thudding into the target. She'd sweep her eyes back over to Skye and offer her a sly smile. "Its all about the muscle memory. And yes, its about making sure that you don't defy your own aim by moving the bow too soon. Most beginners tend to release the arrow and instaly let their bow hand drift backward or... up... or downward... which can lead to your arrows thusly drift downward or off to the sides. If you train yourself to stay steady after release, you will learn that this is all a series of precise steps to achieve the final result."

Lara would then nod down range again. "The punishment of your target."

A distant smile later and she'd take a step back, lift her bow up and re-attach the arrow she had to its side. "Practice with these steps, just get comfortable with it. Come down here and do this when you want to unwind and find some peace. If you can get yourself into a routine of leeting this become therapeutic... rather than a 'chore' then you'll see yourself get better much faster."

Quake has posed:
Skye's gaze flicks over to the other woman now, her bow dropping. "Yeah. I mean, I unwind doing the same thing that winds me up. Sounds pretty counter-intuitive when I say it that way, but I could see doing this." Oddly, she's found even this more relaxing than range practice with her gun. Though, there was a lot of satisfaction in hitting the targets on that range. Something to be said for blowing off steam that way.

This? it was a lot more precise in her mind. And, maybe that was why she was finding herself strangely drawn to it. There was a precision to code that way, too. Even if, as a world class hacker, Skye also knew an awful lot about on the fly and thinking outside the box. Still..

Skye pauses to watch Lara now. "You like making mincemeat out of your target? That come up often in daily life?" Skye not unaware that she was in the minority as an agent, as one who didn't have to face her target head on. There wasn't so much need for gunplay behind a keyboard.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara walked over to the adjacent range and she listend to Skye speak which made her smile softly. She took a few moments to prepare herself further, finish doing what she hadn't done to begin with. "I hunted animals while on trips with my mentor through my teenage years. Its all I ever expected archery to really provide for me." She glanced up at Skye then, her brown ponytail falling down her right shoulder. "I never liked killing the animals for food, but I had to do it because I knew it might someday be a... requirement."

Lara then readied and arrow and she took form, raised her bow and drew back. After a second her arrow was released and it shot down range and landed in the center of the target.

She'd step back then a moment later, staring down at the range, releasing a soft sigh. "I never thought I'd have to shoot at another human being though. And when -that- became a necessity to stay alive, I'd suddenly become quite thankful for my laborious training sessions." And then she'd glance over to Skye and give the other woman another little smile before looking down at her bow in her hands again.

Quake has posed:
Lara gets a quick grin from Skye. "Yeah. Kind of how I feel about guns. Totally not looking forward to having to use them on someone live, but after that attack here by Hydra, I see how even someone like me kind of needs the training. Not that they made it to my level, but if they had.."

She lets that drift off and gets another arrow.

"Learned to code like that. Was living off of the streets. If I didn't find a way to steal what I needed, I wouldn't have made it. And then I started seeing ways that what I did could help out." Though when she says help out, it certainly doesn't mean anything she did was legal. Far from it.

"Took me a long time to begin to settle here at SHIELD." She says that like it wasn't just recently that she'd actually decided she wasn't still actively trying to think how to get away from the place. Like not quite weeks ago, even.

"That training session? Fucking awesome. You were pretty impressive."

She goes through all the steps of aligning her body, taking care with hips and feet, and then and only then, nocks her arrow and draws the bow. Again, holding until she feels her body in position, hands, wrists and arms included, and with the target in sight, releases another arrow.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara would listen closely as she was a very attentive person and curteous toward others, she didn't let her attention drift away and rudely miss what others were saying-- or so she strived not to anyway--and she felt it was soemthing greatly missing from today's society with all the world's distractions now...

"You are a skilled computer tech then." Lara said back to her with a small smile. "I know who to track down when I am having problems. But don't worry, I'm not entirely inept at them, I promise not to ask you if my e-mail was hacked, when really all I did was forget my password." She'd seen some of the people here in the Trisk pestering the I.T. people over the silliest of things, it was amusing.

"Speaking of e-mail... I will send you a rundown checklist of things to do when you're setting up and preparing to shoot. Once I get back to my office, I'll write it out and send it to you." The fancy SHIELD technology here returned Lara's arrow to her range station and she walked over to pluck it up again. "I'm happy to help you with other things as well, guns included, or climbing also." Lara glanced back over her left shoulder.

"There's a climbing wall around the corner there, which is fantastic exercise." She'd look back to Skye and show a soft grin. "If probably even more unnecessary for you to know. I'm not sure if its a 'thing' you need or not. But its fun."

Lara would then prepare to take another shot herself.

Quake has posed:
Skye snorts. "Not an IT person. At least not in the strictest sense. I hack. I break into the unbreakable and tear it down from the inside out. Tech folks solve your email problems or rebuild your hard drive." Well, okay, she could technically do those things too, but it wasn't really her forte. "Might have to kill you if you try to get me to retrieve your password."

The woman smirks as she says that.

"That checklist would be awesome, thanks. I'm sure it's old hand to you now. And guns and climbing too, huh? Might just take you up on those. I'll admit my climbing amounts to something in the range of, fuck no, I'll just die here on flat land, thank-you very much."

Which was something of an exaggeration. She had the basic SHIELD training there, and was quite capable of pulling herself up by upper body strength alone at the very least.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara would shake her head side to side once softly. "I am sorry about inferring that you were an IT person, I'm sure you're much more skilled than that..." She didn't want to offend the other, by any means.

A grin would spread over her lips then and she'd rest her bow back at her side and turn back to face Skye. "You'll be harnessed here, so even if you do slip or let go of the wall you'll be safely hanging from the ceiling... like that Spider-man fellow." She walked back to her bag she'd set on the floor beside the chair and she pulled out a bottle of water.

"I'll save asking you if you'd like to go base jumping for another day." And that was just a light bit of teasing while she uncapped the bottle, grinned at Skye and then took a drink from it.

Quake has posed:
Skye laughs fully at that. "Yeah. Maybe not so much with the base jumping. But the other we could probably manage."

She shrugs lightly at the apology. "Easy enough mistake to make. I mean, look at me, it's not like I scream field agent. Or science geek. They must keep me around for some reason. I say computers, everyone jumps to IT guy. Surprisngly, more folks are worried about why they can't open that attachment on their email than who might have access to their private files. I make it work."

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara would set her water back down on the table beside the chair and then she'd walk back to the range, pausing to watch Skye after she spoke again. "In this world... where technological achievements are king, and prevelent all around us on a day in and day out basis..." Lara smiled at her. "I am completely and entirely confident that of the two of us, you've made the better life choices in your profession than I have."

Lara would line up for another shot then, drawing her bowstring back, eyeing down the arrow and releasing it with a thwick! followed there-after by a thud! and then she relaxed and released another soft exhale.

"I'm also legendarily bad at talking to people and 'making friends'." She showed a smirk back to Skye. "I'm quite awful with people. I wish I'd had lessons for that growing up..."

Quake has posed:
Skye packs up her things, unstringing the bow and putting it away. "You and me both. To all of it. Flip me that email and we'll make this happen."