John Reese (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aimsforknees) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
etrayalogs2024-12-04 03:46 pm
aimsforknees) wrote in etrayalogs2024-12-04 03:46 pm
Entry tags:
- arcane: caitlyn kiramman,
- baldurs gate: shadowheart,
- detroit become human: hank anderson,
- dimension 20: gorgug thistlespring,
- have you seen my brother: chu wenshan,
- ice age: manny,
- person of interest: harold finch,
- person of interest: john reese,
- person of interest: sameen shaw,
- silent hill 3: vincent smith,
- the walking dead: brandon carver,
- ✘ blade of the immortal: asano rin,
- ✘ magic knight rayearth: hikaru shidou
December Library Catch-All [ OPEN ]
WHO: John, Harold, and anyone who might find themselves at the Library
WHEN: December
WHERE: The Library!
WHAT: The Library is here and open to all! Come borrow books, find a comfy chair to relax in, or snoop around.
NOTES\WARNINGS: Will be added as they come up
The Library is a five-story neoclassical building of terra cotta, brick, and stone. And the inside is, in fact, a library! And rather clean and organized too. There's no dust, no muddy footprints (apart from your own), and all the shelves are organized by Dewey Decimal, subject, and author. All literature is something you might find in a 2010 New York City library: various forms of fiction, children's and teens' sections, history, science, cooking, gardening, the list goes on. There's even small sections of audiobooks on compact disks and of DVDs ranging from old classics to history shows. The first floor has a reading/study room, a comfortable space with deep armchairs and tables with chairs; the fifth floor has some smaller tables clustered under a skylight. Part of the second floor is abruptly closed off by a door with a biometric scanner that denies entry to anyone who isn't John Reese or Harold Finch; the walls surrounding this section are soundproofed, so even a keen listener won't hear anything from inside. Otherwise, it's a perfectly normal library!
WHEN: December
WHERE: The Library!
WHAT: The Library is here and open to all! Come borrow books, find a comfy chair to relax in, or snoop around.
NOTES\WARNINGS: Will be added as they come up
The Library is a five-story neoclassical building of terra cotta, brick, and stone. And the inside is, in fact, a library! And rather clean and organized too. There's no dust, no muddy footprints (apart from your own), and all the shelves are organized by Dewey Decimal, subject, and author. All literature is something you might find in a 2010 New York City library: various forms of fiction, children's and teens' sections, history, science, cooking, gardening, the list goes on. There's even small sections of audiobooks on compact disks and of DVDs ranging from old classics to history shows. The first floor has a reading/study room, a comfortable space with deep armchairs and tables with chairs; the fifth floor has some smaller tables clustered under a skylight. Part of the second floor is abruptly closed off by a door with a biometric scanner that denies entry to anyone who isn't John Reese or Harold Finch; the walls surrounding this section are soundproofed, so even a keen listener won't hear anything from inside. Otherwise, it's a perfectly normal library!
no subject
He puts the bullet down and gestures to the parts of the gun he's taken apart, picking them for her to see as he explains.
And this is where I start skimming the explanation.]The gun itself has three purposes: aiming the bullet, igniting the primer, and ejecting the casing. The barrel is what's used to direct the bullet; wherever you point is where it fires. The trigger is what releases the firing pin, which strikes the primer and ignites it. And then this mechanism is what ejects the spent casing so another bullet can be fired.
no subject
She reaches for the gun, running her finger across the trigger curiously.]
Pulling this little lever causes the bullet to shoot in the direction the gun is pointed. And the part of the bullet that isn't shot falls out.
[That's the bare-bones gist of it, anyway. Good enough for her purposes.]
And here I thought it would be complicated. You're quite the good teacher, John.
[She puts a finger on the gun's grip and spins it so it's facing John, an invitation for him to pick it up. The gesture is meant to be smooth and charming; in reality, she can't spin the gun that smoothly and the whole thing ends up being just a little awkward.]
When do I get to watch you use it?
no subject
Now, in fact.
[ Gun put back together, he fetches two pairs of hearing protection headphones and holds one out to her. ]
Guns are loud, so we use hearing protection in the shooting range. Not a luxury we can afford in the field, but there's no reason to ruin your hearing in here. Once you have that on we can communicate by hand signal and I'll give you a demonstration. When I'm shooting make sure to give me enough room. You can stand behind me or in a neighboring lane.
no subject
She runs her fingers around the outside of the headphones to find the tips of her pointed ears sticking out.]
Not designed with elves in mind, I see.
no subject
How's the muffling? How well can you hear me?
no subject
[Yes, she's attempting to flirt. But she can hear him through the headphones. She has quite good hearing, regardless, but if these things are truly meant to block out all sound, the shape of her ears may indeed be a problem.
Well, if he's going to be insistent about it...]
I can cast silence, if it's that important to you. [She doesn't like to waste magic, but one spell won't hurt.]
no subject
I'm assuming that will make things silent? I won't fire my gun unless I'm confident you have proper hearing protection.
no subject
[Her head tilts to the side as she gives him a smile.]
For all sorts of circumstances.
[It's not that she doesn't take this seriously; she certainly doesn't want to damage her hearing, if guns truly are as loud as all that. But if it is only a matter of sound, she's not worried. Silence will more than suffice.]
Come on, show me where you want to shoot that thing, and I'll show you how magic works.
no subject
Set up is simple. You stand in your lane and shoot the target at the end. If you stand a bit behind my shoulder that'll be a good angle.
no subject
[Someone who won't respond in kind to her — admittedly sometimes clumsy — flirting is better than someone who's stupidly cavalier with dangerous things, at least.
As she stands behind him, she drags her fingers through the air, drawing on strands of the Weave for power. A soft violet glow starts at the tips of her fingers and runs up her hands, and for a moment her eyes glow with it too as she murmurs the words of the spell. Briefly, in the glow that surrounds her, the holy symbol of Selûne — two eyes surrounded by seven stars — burns itself into the air in front of her, and then it dissipates, along with all the rest of the light.
Every bit of ambient sound is suddenly gone, as they're encased in a sphere of perfect silence. Nothing at all will be audible to them until she drops the spell or its time runs out.]
no subject
He watches the magic carefully. Of course, it's completely foreign, but he makes a note of the process. It's not instant, it takes time, and the result is undeniable. He doesn't feel the need to test it, the effect is instantly obvious. Instead John just nods and turns towards the paper set up at the end of the lane. It's natural, automatic, bringing his gun up, firing at the outline in the distance. How many times did he do this in training? How many times has he done it on live targets since? But contrary to his training where he aimed for the head or chest, this time he aims for the shoulders. If the targets had them, he'd aim for the knees. It's purposeful; he doesn't shoot to kill these days. Harold doesn't want unnecessary death and John is relieved to comply; he's killed so many people, so many that's it's impossible to say there weren't innocents, a debt to the world he will never repay. So after the clip is empty the paper target at the end of the lane is riddled with shots clustered around the shoulders, vitals completely clean. A job well done.
John puts the safety on, holsters the gun, and turns to face Shadowheart, see what she thinks of the demonstration. He's not smiling but there's somewhat of a lightness to his face, especially in his eyes; he likes having an excuse to fire his gun. He misses it. ]
cw: implication of child abuse
Reading people, though. That is a skill she must have learned early, and practiced often. She picks up the faint strain in John's face, the way his lips curve, or don't quite, the awkwardness of it all. He doesn't smile often, and she gets the sense that he isn't truly smiling now.
But he is clearly enjoying himself, once he makes his demonstration. And he's good at it. A warrior wielding his weapon of choice, if she's ever seen one. It's curious that he puts holes in the shoulders of the target rather than the head or heart, but she can tell it was an intentional choice rather than the result of poor aim.
She drops the spell so they can speak.]
Why the shoulders?
no subject
[ There's a small hesitance at the word "partner". He almost said "employer" but Harold had insisted from day one of being here that he refused to have such a distant relationship with John. There is nothing distant between them, no matter how little he knows of Harold, no matter how they dance around each other just beyond arm's reach. Harold wants to be known as partners, so that's what John says, whatever implications it carries, whatever that says about him. And he purposefully doesn't mention how every bullet that goes in a kneecap instead of a head is a small blessing; he will never walk in the light again but it's a relief that Harold has asked him to do better, to be better. ]
no subject
[She says it flippantly, like it's merely a piece of trivia. Which it mostly is. She's not here to make judgments.
It is... nice, though, in a way she finds odd, that he tries to avoid outright killing. She can't say she's ever made such an effort, and in a world of devils and mind flayers and monstrosities, and all other manner of creatures constantly trying to kill her, she doubts such an effort would prove fruitful. But she's trying to do better, too, in the ways she can.]
Avoiding killing is a luxury few can afford, and fewer still even bother to try. You say you're not the heroic type, and yet you make the effort.
no subject
Better the hospital than the morgue. And trying not to kill people is hardly heroic.
[ He has been called heroic before, for other things. Usually things that involve killing. But when they save a number, when that person looks him in the eyes and thanks him for their life— he doesn't feel like a hero, not really, but he feels a bit lighter. ]
no subject
What would you call it, then?
no subject
Doing my job.
no subject
[Her eyes narrow as she studies his face. He really is a closed book, isn't he?]
The world is a cold place, John. Every day, people are getting their throats slit for a handful of coin, or sacrificed to some god or other, or torn apart by rampaging goblins or a pack of hungry gnolls. It's easy, to become cold in turn. [Gods, it's too easy. No wonder, really, that Shar has as many followers as she does.] It's easy to close your heart, and your eyes and ears, to the suffering of everyone around you, keep your head down, and watch out only for yourself. Perhaps you're right that trying to protect the innocent and avoiding killing where you can don't make you a hero, but there's something to said for them nonetheless.
no subject
He doesn't have anything to say to that. He can't refute her words but he also can't accept any praise for his actions. It's nothing he deserves; just because he does a few good acts does not make him a good person. He lost the right to be called a good person a long time ago. ]
I do, actually, get paid not to kill people. My employer is very specific about that.
[ It's one of the reasons he chose to follow Harold in the first place, even though it was sort of an amusing personality quirk at first. Only after working with him for some time did John realize just how much all of humanity means to Harold. ]
no subject
Consider me corrected.
[It feels like a bit of a deflection, addressing something other than the point she was making, but she'll let it be. If he doesn't want to discuss it further, he must have his reasons.]
And thank you. For the lesson.
no subject
You're welcome. Thanks for showing me magic. I haven't seen any before.
[ It's true, he's had people tell him about it, but he hasn't seen any. It's not that he doesn't believe people when they say it, but there's something different about seeing it, experiencing it. ]