18:18 <tom> The windows in the farmhouse are blacked out. It's a bit of a drive, out of the city and east until the trees and villages give way to eerily bare upland hills. There's a few scattered trees on the property line. They'll note a few freshly-cut stumps in the sightlines of the second-story windows, and a few patches of scorched grass near Bob's parked truck. 18:18 <Crion> Parking? 18:18 <Crion> Next to the truck, then. 18:18 <Crion> Aster's Range Rover is good for it. 18:19 <tom> Just a patch of gravel at the end of the drive. The scorches have mostly been washed away by successive rainfall, but there's a few burned patches on the way on in. 18:19 <tom> Bob's grilling on the covered patio next to a little crowd of free-standing shooting targets. The ones with the stenciled ovals over the vitals. 18:20 <tom> There's a little space heater humming gently next to a bench table covered in more paper targets and disassembled machinery. 18:21 <tom> If you stand on the largest of the burned patches of grass and look roughly west, you can see through the five-centimeter holes in successive trees off into a little copse beyond. 18:22 <Crion> When Aster steps out of the Range Rover, he's in a light running jacket and jeans, with comfortable shoes. 18:22 <tom> He waves them over, crushes another beer. 18:23 <tom> He's in a comfy winter jacket and jeans, turning over steaks on the grill as they come up the path. 18:23 <Crion> He sticks his hands in the pockets and walks over, after locking the vehicle. 18:24 <tom> The sun's just starting to dip over those naked eastern hills. 18:24 <Crion> "Good afternoon. Or evening." Examining the food: "Is this a challenge run?" 18:24 <tom> western* 18:24 <Crion> "Eat a steak then run a lap?" 18:25 <tom> "It'd be pretty shitty to make you drive all the way to fuckin' Tintwistle and not feed ya, no?" 18:25 <tom> "Smart to hold off 'till you beast it I guess." 18:25 <VoxPVoxD> Willie emerges from the Rover only a moment after Aaron, dressed for cold weather, with a scarf, gloves, and earmuffs alongside a sleek navy-coloured winter jacket. The gravel crunches underneath her trainers. Before waving at Bob she turns her back to him, taking in the sweep of the land and a deep breath as well. 18:26 <tom> He turns and navigates through the little mingle of standing targets. Aster will note the circuits glued up the obverse side of each target, and a few odd cut-outs at eye level. 18:27 <tom> He rubs his hands together. "Brrrrr. Now this is the England I was promised." 18:27 <VoxPVoxD> “This place is going to be so pretty come the spring!” she calls as she gets closer. ”These hillsides here, are going to explode with wildflowers. Vetchlings, dog-violets, selfheal, valerian, hedge-mustard.” 18:27 <tom> "I can't wait," he beams. 18:27 <VoxPVoxD> “The sun will rise in the east there and touch those hillsides, lighting up the flowers.” 18:27 <VoxPVoxD> “Gorgeous.” 18:27 <Crion> Aster: "'Hedge-mustard.'" 18:27 <tom> At Aster: "So did you ah, get the scream-mail from the Court yet?" 18:27 <VoxPVoxD> It’s just a brown smear on the horizon now. Who knows if what Willie sees in it is really there? 18:28 <Crion> Aster: "Which one?" 18:28 <tom> "You know," he rubs the back of his neck. "The thing..." 18:28 <Crion> Aster: "The Gangrel primogen is not happy about the fact that I don't respect her people and I'm not going to start." 18:28 <tom> "I mean from... you know... Barrowsmith." 18:28 <Crion> "But we can discuss that further en banc." 18:29 <Crion> Aster's mouth presses into a somehow thinner line. "No." 18:29 <tom> He shakes his head. "Ahaha, yeah, uh... so..." 18:29 <Crion> "That particular sword still hangs over our head." 18:29 <tom> "I'm ready to go through the rules if you'all are." 18:29 <VoxPVoxD> Interrupting them: ”So what’s the plan, Professor Goreman?” 18:29 <tom> "So uh, yeah, should be pretty straightforward. Just head on through the course, each station is marked with an orange X and a number." 18:29 <tom> He gestures at a blueprint taped down onto the table to protect it from the wind. https://i.imgur.com/Xa79tO2.png 18:30 <tom> He takes up one of the targets. "There's a total of twenty-five scorable targets. That's these-" He flips it around, revealing a splotchy >:[ sprayed onto the stenciled ovals on the target's head. "One point for regulars, two for specials." 18:30 <tom> He picks up another pair; one with a simple smile sprayed onto its 'face', and another shitty rendition of a fanged vampire, with a smiley face instead of a frown. "Civilian, ...aaaaand vampire civilian. If you shoot one of these," he intones gravely, "I will be sad." 18:30 <tom> "I'm not racist," he explains. 18:31 <Crion> Aster: "You keep talking to me like I'm going to be running the course. No." 18:31 <tom> "They can be civilians too." 18:31 <Crion> "I can grill." 18:31 <Crion> "You run it." 18:31 <tom> He laughs. "Ahah, I 18:31 <tom> "I made it. That's cheating." 18:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: ”Shouldn’t the innocent vampires be frowning and the ones we can shoot be having the time of their lives?” 18:32 <Crion> Aster sits down in one of the lawn chairs or whatever. "Then cheat." 18:32 <Crion> "We need a baseline." 18:32 <tom> "You know I never thought about it that way." He turns to Aster: "Alright I'm chill with it." 18:32 <tom> "I'm like four beers deep but yeah that just means I'm in the zone." 18:32 <VoxPVoxD> “That was how the obstacle-course in Milan was set up. Oh, that reminds me - fire? Yes? No?” 18:33 <tom> "Fire's fine. Don't wanna start making fish climb trees." 18:33 <Crion> Aster summons the stopwatch app on his phone. "Please define the starting position, the ending position, and how you qualify for both." 18:33 <tom> "Just you know please don't like... burn my house down," a brief, pained expression. 18:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie narrows her eyes a bit. 18:33 <Crion> "The diagram is. Unclear." 18:33 <VoxPVoxD> “I believe I’ll stick to the 20-gauge.” 18:34 <tom> "There's a big ole X on the far side of the farmhouse. You start with a breach entry- which is fine, I'm gonna take down the wall and put on a sunroom so Mari can have some plants." 18:34 <tom> "It ends when you clear the last room of targets, that's the second-story north bedroom." 18:34 <tom> "You, me, I guess." 18:35 <tom> There's some sort of jury-rigged visor on the bench table, a pair of wraparound sunglasses with a shoddily-wired sensor. He picks it up and fiddles with it. 18:35 <tom> "As you know, most of their gnarly shit requires eye contact." He puts it on, and picks up another target; this one has a pair of batteries glued to its obverse. 18:35 <tom> He flips it around; there's a pair of LEDs set into where the eyes would be. 18:35 <tom> "Taking the visor off is a D.Q. Looking into their eyes is an instant D.Q." 18:35 <Crion> Aster blinks. "Your starting location requires you to replace a breach point every time?" 18:35 <Crion> "That's impressive." 18:35 <Crion> "I hope you have many walls." 18:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: ”That’s so Bob.” 18:36 <tom> "I've got some two-by-fours. And yeah, you gotta... breaching right is important." 18:36 <Crion> Aster: "Well. You're not wrong." 18:36 <tom> "Oh man, you guys would love some of my old footage of our pointman going in too soon and getting knocked on his ass by the charges." 18:36 <Crion> "So I start the timer when you breach, stop when you clear the final target in the last room." Does Aster have a good view of the final room from here? 18:36 <VoxPVoxD> “Is there comms during the course or can we have ears in under our ears?” 18:36 <tom> He slaps on the visor. 18:37 <tom> There's a little bank of shitty cctv monitors covering cameras on each room wired up onto the bench table. 18:37 <tom> "I was planning on walking you through over the radio, yeah." 18:37 <VoxPVoxD> “Right.” 18:37 <Crion> Aster: "Okay. So let's do it this way." 18:37 <Crion> "We do a walkthrough. Without exploding anything." 18:38 <Crion> "Explain the course to us." 18:38 <Crion> "THEN you run it." 18:38 <Crion> "Give you time to get sober." 18:38 <tom> "Aight." 18:38 <Crion> "Or more drunk. Or maintain levels. So long as I'm not downrange, no judgment." 18:38 <Crion> That's possibly the most American that Aster has been in either of their presences so far. 18:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie opens her coat enough to produce both halves of her shotgun. 18:39 <tom> Bob rolls his shoulders and heads on past a pair of steel plates set up against the wall where the spectators will be standing on the patio, rapping one as he unlatches the door. "That's what these're for." 18:39 <tom> "Obviously don't use AP for this exercise. In a real situation we'll be using incendiaries." 18:39 <Crion> Aster is not carrying his Glock, possibly under the assumption that if he needs a weapon one will be on hand. 18:40 <tom> He leads them into a large room with a sloppy orange sprayed onto the floor, then into the adjoining bathroom marked by a . 18:40 <tom> [03:40] <tom> He leads them into a large room with a sloppy orange 3 sprayed onto the floor, then into the adjoining bathroom marked by a 2. 18:41 <Crion> Aster: "...Should I ask where 1 is or is that the joke?" 18:41 <tom> There's little railed tracks bolted all over the floor, the walls, and in a few places, even the ceiling, each with a little motorized train and fittings for a target. 18:41 <tom> "You're not supposed to come in from this side..." 18:42 <VoxPVoxD> “It’s whatever room we’re breaching into, I assume.” 18:42 <tom> The 1 isn't visible from the inside of the first room; its on the outside facade. 18:42 <Crion> Aster: "Right. The map. So 1 is behind us over here." 18:42 <tom> He leads them into the first room and stands by the wall marked by a lazy X. 18:43 <tom> "So you deploy the breaching charges and come in here. Targets pop up as you go. The unique condition for this room is the dust from the breach obscuring vision." 18:44 <tom> Back through the bathroom; an ugly passage has been smashed through the bedroom closet. "Two, narrow spaces. Tight quarters, targets coming up quickly as you go through here-" he continues on into a short hallway. 18:44 <Crion> Are the targets popping up? 18:45 <Crion> Aster would ask about the mechanism -- pressure, electronics, etc -- but that feels like cheating. 18:45 <tom> No, everything's off while they walk the course. 18:45 <tom> "...I can go back and turn them on if you want?" 18:45 <Crion> Aster: "No, in a certain sense that would be cheating." 18:46 <tom> The next room, STATION 3, is the combined living room and kitchen; furniture has been overturned to create a series of chest-high walls. 18:46 <tom> Then it's up the stairs. More tracks bolted onto everything. 18:47 <Crion> Aster: "So." 18:47 <Crion> "We're coming up on the 'mean trick.'" 18:47 <tom> Both doors on either side of the landing are blocked off, leaving just the bathroom, where a bathtub churns with murky water. "Yeah?" 18:47 <tom> "I mean it doesn't work on me... but it helps to give people a clue..." 18:48 <tom> "Anyway you just continue through the bathroom and then into the south bed, then uh, out onto the exterior." 18:48 <Crion> Aster: "Well, then let's not trigger it, unless it's a requirement to traversal." 18:48 <Crion> Has Bob installed fall mats beneath the second-floor area labelled "Climb"? 18:49 <VoxPVoxD> “Along the outside wall? Is it safe?” 18:49 <tom> There's a large window out onto the exterior. Bob winces. "You don't gotta like... follow me out here... if it's awkward. 18:49 <tom> " 18:49 <Crion> Which appears to be some kind of shimmy. 18:49 <Crion> Ah, here we are. 18:49 <tom> Peering out the window Aster can see a number of mattresses on the grass below. 18:49 <Crion> Aster: "You're absolutely correct that I do not." 18:49 <tom> There's a guide rope bolted to the shell at various points. 18:49 <tom> "Last room's just a bunch of civilians and targets intermingled to make it tricky." 18:49 <tom> "Last target goes down and you time it." 18:49 <Crion> Aster won't vocally disapprove as long as the fall mats are comprehensive. 18:50 <tom> It looks like he just went out and loaded a bunch of mattresses off his truck. 18:50 <tom> He exhales. "Soooo that's it." 18:50 <tom> "Any, uh, questions I guess? Before I destroy this?" 18:51 <Crion> Then: "I would get more mattresses. And specifically, fall-rated inflatables that are used for stunt work." 18:51 <tom> "Yeah, I'll order some online or whatever." 18:51 <Crion> Good thing Bob is the one who will be running this. 18:51 <tom> "I wanna run Rolf and Badawi through just so they know the drill." 18:52 <VoxPVoxD> ’Fall-rated inflatable’ has quite a nice mouthfeel, as a phrase. Willie mumbles it to herself a bit. 18:52 <Crion> And those two. 18:52 <tom> "Sooo... we ready to get started? I gotta set up the targets." 18:52 <VoxPVoxD> “I am!” 18:53 <Crion> Aster: "I will check on the steaks." 18:53 <tom> Bob nods and flips off his visor, replacing it with the customized laser-tag rig with the cyclopean sensor to fail him if he looks at the LED eyes. 18:53 <tom> "Sick." 18:53 <VoxPVoxD> “I want slugs, right? Not shells with shot in them.” 18:54 <Crion> Aster: "That depends on the targets." 18:54 <tom> Five minutes later and Bob is stepping out of the house, making sure his teammates are safely behind the steel plates on the patio. "Buckshot's fine here, the targets are just paper and having a bigger shotcone helps get kills." 18:54 <Crion> "You'd want slugs on steel." 18:54 <Crion> "At least from distance." 18:54 <VoxPVoxD> “Won’t the bigger... shot... cone mean I’m more likely to hit bystanders?” 18:54 <tom> "Don't aim at bystanders is my recommendation." 18:54 <VoxPVoxD> “You said you mixed them all up at the end!” 18:55 <Crion> To Bob: "Does the course have no-shoots?" 18:55 <tom> He starts off on some bullshit tangent before she can stop him: "Buckshot actually has less kinetic energy than a big ole slug so its less likely to overpenetrate. Fun facts." 18:55 <tom> "Yeah that's why it's a hard course. You just gotta get good." 18:55 <tom> "No no shoots. in Valkyrie we never ah, took points off for shooting civie targets." 18:56 <tom> He rubs the back of his neck. 18:56 <tom> "You don't get any points, though." 18:56 <Crion> Aster: "Well, if there aren't no-shoots, and there aren't steel targets, you will want buckshot." 18:56 <tom> "Alright," he says simply as he steps off the patio and jogs around to the back of the house. Now it's all over the cameras. 18:56 <VoxPVoxD> Loading her gun from the coat pocket that isn’t the one she just unloaded her gun into: “So we go back around, then? To where the real dark souls start?” 18:57 <Crion> Aster: "Well, one of you does. The other should probably be in observation, with me." 18:57 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks to Bob for guidance. 18:57 <tom> "I'll go through first, then I'll reset the course for you after, yeah?" 18:57 <VoxPVoxD> Both in this specific instance and, gallingly, in general. 18:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: ”To the panopticon, then.” 18:58 <tom> He disappears around the corner; the cameras pick him up by the lazy 1. BREACH painted over a section of wall. 18:59 <VoxPVoxD> To Aaron: ”He’s going to make this look really easy, isn’t he?” 19:00 <tom> There's a little box of... caulking tools? It looks like? Next to the wall. He picks up one of the caulk guns (?) and taps his headset. Click: "Timer starts when the breach goes off." 19:00 <Crion> Aster: "Probably." 19:00 <Crion> "You'd hope so." 19:00 <tom> He slams the caulkgun against a pre-drilled pilot hole on the wall and squeezes. 19:00 <Crion> Aster: "READY UP HERE." 19:00 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: ”All clear!” 19:00 <tom> A battery on the handle beeps. Bob leaves the tool buried in the wall and gets to cover. "BREACHING!" 19:02 <Crion> Aster hits the button when he feels the blast. 19:02 <tom> The wall disintegrates into splintered shrapnel, leaving an ugly wound. Bob disappears into the cloud of dust, boots crunching over broken glass. 19:03 <tom> The lights are dimmed; there's enough that his eyes don't have to adjust; he has just enough time to appreciate the bedroom's tarped-over decor before a motor springs to life with a whirr and a fanged target launches itself down a pair of rails bolted to the floor. Then two more, popping up from behind the dusty bed. 19:03 <tom> Bob's shotgun is in his hands; did it ever leave? Buckshot rips through the cardboard and leaves the tattered remains squeaking backward on their tracks. 19:03 <tom> He wheels and ducks into the bathroom. 19:04 <Crion> Aster: "Hnh. He's really quite good at that." 19:05 <tom> The passage torn through the bedroom closet opens up into a small bathroom. There's an evil red glow from above, and Bob is promptly ambushed by one of the special targets flipping down from the splotched ceiling, shattering to pieces without a look. 19:05 <tom> Beyond is a short hall with open doors on either side. A long arrow sprayed onto the floor weaves between them. More 'vampires' fling themselves around corners to menace Bob. He finds himself pivoting left, right, making broad sweeping rotations at the targets as they pop up. 19:06 <tom> The whole front of his shotgun comes off after each shot, sliding open and ejecting the spent case, loading a fresh one with the backward motion back into the receiver. 19:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie’s about to make a joke, but she’s just drawn in. Look at him go. 19:08 <tom> The next target to pop up comes between stations, a first. Until now they've only started with a prompt by the floorpaint. Bob smashes it's head off with the butt of his shotgun. 19:09 <tom> He drops to one knee behind an overturned couch and slots in another pair of shells. 19:09 <tom> More targets launch up and are annihilated. 19:10 <tom> The course takes him through the kitchen, where a target with reinforced backing takes two hits and a deft kick to go down before it squeals to a halt on the tracks inches from Bob's face. 19:11 <Crion> Aster: "Well, I think you can probably use your gun there." 19:11 <Crion> "Though close combat is a consideration." 19:11 <tom> He takes the stairs; another glowing red evil vampire flips down off the ceiling and disintegrates in a hail of buckshot. "What?" He clicks over the radio. "Oh yeah:" 19:12 <tom> The doors to the left and right are blocked off. There's no door on the frame into the bathroom, where a tub churns with murky water. 19:12 <tom> They come from all directions, and just when it seems like it's over, a red glow flares to life in the dark water. The radio clicks on: "Mean trick." 19:13 <tom> ...The target, and the wall behind it explode in a spray of water and drywall, the remains settling back down into the tub. And another pair come in through the breached wall into the adjacent bedroom's closet. A couple civilian targets slide out to give cover to the one with evil red eyes. 19:13 <Crion> Aster: "Interesting." Usually that word is pretty much an expletive; when Aster says it here, it's with an edge. 19:14 <Crion> He uses the word the way it was meant to be used. 19:15 <tom> Bob's clambering inelegantly out onto the ledge, looping the guiderope around his elbow. 19:15 <tom> Fuck, it's been raining. The ledge is slippery. 19:15 <tom> Maybe he was right about the fall bags. 19:16 <Crion> Of course Aster was right about the inflatables. 19:16 <tom> A target pops up out the open bathroom window and is headbutted back inside by a flailing Bob. 19:16 <tom> ...He somehow steadies himself and hauls up to the final room's exterior window. 19:17 <tom> The next station is painted along the facade: VI: HOSTAGE RESCUE. 19:18 <tom> The arrows terminate at the bedroom window, open. Inside, a group of kneeling hostages give cover to a glowing-eyed target spinning in place on some kind of suped-up Christmas tree stand. More come from odd angles as he vaults through. 19:18 <tom> He times his jump so the evil glow is spinning away from him as he makes his entry. Three shots ring out, and three targets explode; he's kneeling on the floor and firing the buckshot up between the hostages to smash the final target without any collateral. 19:18 <tom> "TIME!" 19:20 <Crion> Aster: "59 point 6 seconds." 19:20 <tom> "Hooooo." 19:20 <VoxPVoxD> “Holy hell!” 19:21 <Crion> Aster: "Now. I feel like eating a god damn steak. And these look very good." 19:21 <Crion> "So I'm going to be the lower-bounds test." 19:21 <tom> "No collateral damage," Bob replies, going for a water bottle. 19:21 <Crion> "Let's set up the wall again. Bob, what do you have to give me for a gun?" 19:22 <tom> "I've got one of the pistols I took off the Cheiron rubes. It's a FiveseveN, though," he laments. "So there's only a few mags." 19:22 <tom> "Fucking frogs." 19:22 <Crion> Aster grunts. "So I'm going to be pissing money on the range. Fair enough." 19:23 <tom> Bob hands him the sleek little piece and the magazines before stomping off to reset the course. 19:23 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, in a cod Russian accent: ”No such thing as concern of money.” 19:24 <Crion> "Ha." To Willie: "I've never shot this gun before and I'm not a field agent. So this should be a decent demonstration of what just some fit day-one with range training can do on this." 19:24 <VoxPVoxD> Well fit. 19:25 <VoxPVoxD> “Right.” She seems apprehensive. 19:25 <tom> He clicks on over the radio: "Oh yeah be careful with the caulk guns. They're filled with plasticine; when you finish the trigger pull it sets the fuze." 19:25 <tom> "Ten seconds." 19:25 <tom> He's taking up a wooden frame and bolting it over the destroyed wall. 19:25 <tom> This one comes with another helpfully pre-drilled pilot hole! 19:26 <Crion> Aster: "Right." Three magazines should be enough. 19:26 <tom> "It fills the gap between the walls and creates a breach in. You can get some targets just with the splinters." 19:26 <tom> "And also take some to the face if you're dumb as hell." 19:26 <tom> He touches his cheek thoughtfully. 19:27 <tom> Yeah okay: "Ready here. New targets. Randomized a few of the specials and hostages." 19:27 <Crion> Aster gets used to the feel of the pistol. "Give me a range clear, and a ready." 19:28 <tom> Bob makes his way back over to the cameras on the patio and grabs a steak on the way. Chewing: "Myeah, one second..." 19:28 <tom> "Range clear. Course ready." 19:29 <Crion> Aster: "Breaching--" 19:29 <tom> Bob leans back and starts in on his steak while he scans the monitors, occasionally turning to watch Willie's reaction. 19:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie’s frowning intently at the screens. 19:30 <Crion> The charge is louder than Aster anticipated, and he stumbles coming through the cleared hole -- it doesn't quite entirely go to ground level. He briefly loses his bearings: swings right through the dust and tries to clear a wall before realizing that the targets are to his left. 19:32 <tom> "It happens," he doesn't say over the radio. The last thing the dude will want is his pity. 19:32 <Crion> Aster hunches forward through towards station 2, firing into the targets as he comes in close on them. He almost misses one of the ones behind the bed, but stays with it and clears the target, coughing still. 19:34 <Crion> The cover to cover room. He puts bullets into the entry targets and then moves, pivots, and shoots. He's methodical, but not as slow as he could be; at least he's oriented the proper way as he gets to the stairs. 19:36 <Crion> He only sort of saw how the mean trick worked over the video feed. He gets a better angle of it this time, as he accidentally blows a civilian away, audibly curses, and shoots the glowing-eye target three times between said eyes only once the scheme has played itself out. 19:36 <Crion> Let's at least try not to fall off the damn building, hmm Aaron?; 19:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie is looking downright anxious now. She can’t meet Bob’s eyes. 19:38 <Crion> Well, he tries. And he almost falls off the damn building. Scurrying to the hostage rescue point for stage 6 is only slightly humiliating; he doesn't fall into the mattresses and he doesn't lose his gun, but it's a close thing on both. 19:38 <tom> "That's the hardest part." 19:40 <Crion> Eventually, he makes it around to the window breachpoint for the final area, and instead of jumping through, just fires five shots. They take out three targets. He shoulders through the replaced broken glass as he shouts: "TIME." 19:41 <tom> "Two-Oh Five on the dot," Bob's voice comes in over the radio. 19:41 <tom> "Not bad for a boomer," he chuckles at Willie. Aster doesn't need to hear that one. 19:42 <Crion> Aster: "Whew. Have some...complaints to register...about your five-seven. It apparently makes me bad at dealing with explosions, and vampires." 19:42 <tom> "It's a cursed weapon. It is simply cursed." 19:42 <Crion> When he makes it back up there: "That's why I'm not a field agent." 19:43 <VoxPVoxD> Deep, deep breath. ”Right.” 19:43 <tom> "This is Valkyrie spec, man, you're in a high league. Don't sweat it." 19:43 <VoxPVoxD> She’s going to get some water. 19:43 <VoxPVoxD> While Bob sets back up. 19:43 <tom> He takes the gun and clears the chamber. By the time Willie's coming back he's cleaning it with ballistol and a wire brush. "You can use your shotgun if you want. You can have both." 19:43 <tom> "Sometimes the hotswap game can save your life." 19:44 <tom> He takes a bundle of cardboard targets under his arm and hups back through the patio door. 19:44 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: ”I should practise with the thing I will actually be carrying into battle, I think.” 19:44 <Crion> Aster hands him a gun with the chamber cleared and open, and the magazine out. Please. 19:44 <tom> It never hurts to double-check, but yeah, don't want to insult the dude. He's been through enough already. 19:45 <tom> He spends a little bit of time mopping up some water on the second-story bathroom floor. It's gotten to sloshing what with the gunplay. 19:45 <tom> A few minutes later he's bolting a replacement wall to the exterior of station one. Trying to pry it off experimentally. Nodding: "Range ready." 19:46 <tom> He's making his way up the patio steps: "You good to go, Willie?" 19:46 <VoxPVoxD> “Yessir.” 19:46 <tom> "Haha," oh no. 19:46 <Crion> Aster flops down into his seat, finger on the stopwatch app. 19:47 <tom> He sets up at the cameras. "Remember to take cover." 19:47 <tom> "Wood shrapnel will mess up your foundation." 19:48 <VoxPVoxD> Willie squares up, takes one more deep breath, and ”Breaching!” 19:48 <Crion> Yes, she wants to hear makeup jokes right now. Very good Bob. 19:48 <Crion> He starts the timer. 19:48 <Crion> As he does: "Now where's my steak?" 19:48 <tom> Bob opens up the grill. "I didn't know how you wanted it so uh, ah, I made a rare, a medium-rare, and a..." 19:49 <tom> He gulps: "Well done just in case that's what you do." 19:49 <Crion> Aster: "Medium rare." 19:49 <tom> He serves it up on a plate with a foil-wrapped potato. 19:50 <Crion> Hmmm...carbs. 19:50 <tom> His attention turns to the cameras and stays that way for the rest of the run. 19:50 <Crion> He will at least pick at the potato in the interest of politeness. 19:50 <VoxPVoxD> Willie’s jumpy, and she goes through a bit too early... but she just forces her way through the debris that should knock her back and manages to remember which way to aim (STAGE right, not HER right) as she barrels through the first chamber. 19:50 <Crion> Aster's attention also remains on the cameras. 19:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie’s aim is solid, but she’s doesn’t have the muscle memory to reload smoothly, and it bites into what her time could have been otherwise. 19:53 <VoxPVoxD> Her pathing and footwork are rough in the cover-to-cover, but her reflexes are solid. 19:56 <VoxPVoxD> The Cheap Trick comes, and Willie doesn’t bother to aim. She jumps right into the tub, thrusting her shotgun past the innocent paper dolls, and muzzle contact with the target. Her shins are wet now. 19:56 <Crion> Aster leans forward. "Holy shit." 19:56 <Crion> He doesn't curse often. 19:57 <tom> Bob is too busy swooning to notice. 19:58 <VoxPVoxD> Jumping in the tub was a bad idea, she slips on the climbing section, falling to one knee, leg dangling over the mattresses below. But she holds on, and, after an undigified, arse-waving scrabble, is able to get back up and through the far window. 19:58 <tom> "Shhhhi--" 19:58 <tom> For a brief second it honestly looks like he's about to go out there and try to catch her. 19:58 <Crion> Aster busies himself with the steak for a moment. 20:01 <tom> Click: "Eighty-five point two." 20:01 <VoxPVoxD> Quick glance around the room, tidied but not repaired. Picking the Sumi-2s out. She lets a hanging nail exposed in the doorway drag over her exposed wrist, and takes the last target in a running tackle out of the room. It ignites in midair, and she rolls with it on the wet grass, calling TIME!” only when it’s smoke and ashes in her gloved hands. 20:02 <Crion> Aster: "Eighty-five point two seconds." 20:02 <tom> "Holy shit." 20:02 <Crion> Aster: "That's what I said." 20:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie’s lying on her back in the yard, chest heaving. Her eyes glow only dimly. 20:03 <tom> Bob is actually jogging around the corner with a fire extinguisher, just to be safe. 20:03 <tom> She on fire? 20:03 <VoxPVoxD> Nope. She rolled it out. 20:04 <VoxPVoxD> It’d be funny if he shot her anyway, though. 20:04 <VoxPVoxD> Safety first! 20:04 <Crion> Mmm. I think not. 20:04 <tom> Funny, but dangerous. He sets it down on the grass and squats next to her. "How's the wrist?" 20:05 <tom> "I got some bandaids in the truck." 20:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie groans. ”It’s just a scratch. Have you got a plaster?” 20:06 <tom> He offers a hand to help her up. "A what?" 20:06 <tom> "Is that some sort of princess thing I'm too pauper to understand?" 20:06 <Crion> From above: "A firm bandage." 20:06 <tom> "Oh yeah I got some gauze." 20:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: ”You know! A little-- yeah, sure.” 20:07 <tom> He'll go get a little medical kit out from under the truck's passenger seat and rejoins them at the patio, where he'll stop short of demanding to apply the bandage. 20:08 <VoxPVoxD> Willie takes it gratefully. ”So how was I?” 20:08 <tom> So, now: another beer. "Pretty good." 20:08 <tom> "I mean obviously I crushed it, I built it. It's not even fair." 20:08 <tom> "Wanna see how Rolf handles doors and corners." 20:09 <Crion> Aster, enjoying his steak: "You were phenomenal. Tactical, I would say." 20:10 <VoxPVoxD> Willie sits up on her own, but will reach her arm up to Bob as a way of asking him to help her to her feet. 20:10 <tom> "...Like I said, I don't think it counts. I knew where every target would be." He takes her hand and clasps it, before rocking back to pull her to her feet. 20:11 <tom> Once the bandage is secured over the cut, he'll turn back to the patio and rub his neck. "So that's the basic idea. Obviously it's not like... the same thing as a real encounter..." 20:11 <VoxPVoxD> “Whoo-” Willie cracks her back once she stands. ”But it was good, right? I don’t need to do it again?” 20:11 <VoxPVoxD> “I’ll do it again if I need to.” 20:12 <tom> "If you want to see what bad looks like we could put Richard through the course." 20:12 <tom> "That'd be mean though." 20:12 <tom> "You're great! Innovative, going for the close-in on the Mean Trick, and finishing off the final room with a melee kill." 20:12 <tom> "No splashed civilians either." 20:12 <VoxPVoxD> “No, no, absolutely not. Our hands look like this so his can look, however they look now. Is there such a thing as gaming mittens?” 20:13 <tom> "He's got those adorable little mittens for his tea." 20:13 <Crion> Aster: "Hmm? No. When I said 'phenomenal, tactical even,' I was referring to Willie's time." 20:13 <Crion> "Your lineage is obvious, Bob." 20:14 <tom> "Oh yeah sorry I guess I just got that ardrenaline going. Don't sweat it." 20:14 <VoxPVoxD> “Oh! You’re very kind, Aaron, thank you. I don’t mind telling you, I felt, whoo, quite a bit of pressure!” 20:14 <VoxPVoxD> “Robert’s some kind of savant, and Aaron’s so fit...” 20:15 <tom> "...I've just done it a bunch." 20:15 <Crion> Wryly: "'Aaron' needs to do more than two magazines every three months on the range, clearly." 20:15 <Crion> "That said, paper targets are a fringe use-case for my skill set." 20:16 <tom> "Sure, sure, it's not like you guys are frontline tactical. It's just... you know... good to know." 20:16 <VoxPVoxD> “Oh... oh... are those potatoes?” 20:16 <tom> "I mean every military operation is just... that. A series of steps, broken down, that lead to success." 20:16 <Crion> Aster: "They are." 20:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie takes two, and butter for four. 20:16 <VoxPVoxD> The boys can have their steaks. 20:16 <Crion> Aster notes that. 20:17 <Crion> He's not about to say out loud how pale and weak she looks in her moment of triumph, but. 20:17 <Crion> The Italian.