We seek justice for brad's wife. Fired after 11 years of extraordinary service...on his birthday no less ...come on Cracker Barrel!
[First] [Previous] [Next (coming soon)] Mick's pistol because I want a cover image Mick reference Random drawing of Finn Memory transcription subject: “Mick”, Venlil, Former mechanical engineer, Gunsmith apprentice Date [Standardized Human Time]: November 17, 2136
We lined up outside of the facility where our first competition would be held. The official rules would have to be explained to us before we started, as is standard for these events. Finn had already given me most of the knowledge I needed, but I still had to listen to the instructor’s words, unless I wanted to do something wrong and be disqualified.
“Alright, is everyone here?” The instructor shouted. “Nobody unaccounted for? Perfect! I see some new faces here today, so I’m going to have to go over the rules again.”
“First up, the basic safety rules must be followed at all times, no exceptions, ever! Understood?”
The line of about 20 competitors all barked out an affirmative in unison, I followed shortly after.
“Good! Good. Second rule, prioritize safety above all else. If you see someone doing something wrong, or dangerous, or outright stupid, point it out to me or one of the other safety guys around. Understood?”
“Yes sir!” The whole line responded.
The instructor’s presence was quite hard to ignore, it seems this man has a history of yelling at people to get points across to their head.
“Good! Alright, third rule. Have fun, don't die.”
“Yes sir!” we all said again.
“If nobody has any questions, we shall begin! Whoever’s first, go to the line, hands on the door, then wait for instructions. I shall follow suit shortly. When you’re done with the course, make your way up to the catwalk, the view’s great from up there, trust me. For now, sit and wait for your turn.”
Finn turned to me and added onto the instructor’s advice. “Hey Mick, don’t expect to be able to sprint through the whole thing like last time, pace yourself, depending on how they set this up, this course could take anywhere from a minute to 10, we won’t know until we’re both done. They don’t want people to cheat, taking it blind is part of the fun with this style of comp.”
Finn looked a little tense, as if the anticipation was getting to him. I knew it was getting to me too, so no wonder it was getting to him. A while ago, I figured out that I didn’t feel things quite the same as most everyone else did. Things that made others incredibly disgusted only made me a little uncomfortable. I didn’t feel loneliness even after days worth of isolation. All of the time I spent was either working or sleeping, I didn’t feel the need for free time, and I liked having a lot of surplus money, so I worked. That was, at least until I found the exchange program. It paid a decent amount of money, so I was compelled to join up. These humans couldn’t be so bad, plus I needed something new to do. Fortunately, I had previously passed empathy tests, albeit barely. It registered enough of an empathetic response for me to pass undetected. I was legally free of predator disease.
Apparently, a few of the earliest exchange partners had a bug where they could share images, and we had that bug, so I got to see the humans' appearance way earlier than most. Bipedal, tall, forward facing eyes, mostly hairless, wearing textiles to replace their lack of hair. That didn’t bother me too much, unsurprising considering my overall lack of intense emotional response that had prompted the earlier PD screenings.
It had been about [30 minutes], about half the competitors had already gone through the course before us. My turn was up next, and Finn was right after me, we were just waiting for the competitor currently in the course to finish.
A bell chimed, signifying that the last guy had made it through, finishing his run. Finn gave me a pat on the back, a sign that I should get ready to get in there.
“Remember to pace yourself, you know, you can’t run through this behemoth in 20 seconds. Slow and steady will win you the race.” Finn advised.
“Alrighty, next competitor!” The instructor bellowed, almost interrupting Finn’s advice. “Minek the Venlil? You ready?”
“As ready as I'll ever be, I guess.” I said, anticipation and nerves high.
I don’t necessarily like talking to people, particularly the ones I don’t know. Another aspect of why I felt like my home was better set on earth, rather than that sunside town where everyone just had to stop and get to know you. I’m not going back, even under the threat of annihilation, like what nearly happened to all of earth’s inhabitants.
“Make ready, put your hands on the door, your run starts once the timer beeps. If the lights turn red, stop your run immediately, make clear, holster your weapon. Understood?”
“Understood.” I replied.
I seated a new magazine into my pistol, racked the slide, holstered it, and placed my hands on the door. Here was my time to shine, I guess.
“Shooter ready? Standby…”
The moment of silence between the announcer’s callout and the timer’s beep felt like a small eternity.
BEEP!
I popped the door open as quickly as I could, took a high-ready stance, and began steadily advancing through the entrance hallway. There was a door on the left, as I entered it, I see a target standing both behind a target and a hostage. I'm forced to take my time lining up the headshot, KRAK, the target fragments into digital fragments. Another target to the right of it, slam a round through its torso. Move on, 2 targets behind a barricade, one no shoot. Take out both targets swiftly, then take a peek around the next corner. At the last moment, I spot a somewhat hidden cranny in the course right after the hallway, on my left. I backpedal, swing the pistol around the corner, and plant a round square through the chest of a target that was hiding within.
Now actually going down the hallway, there’s another hallway on the right, and a T-junction at the very end. The hallway on the right has 2 targets right next to each other, shoot and no-shoot. I take this quickly, they aren’t overlapped or anything special, just next to each other. I nearly missed because I was still moving when I shot, I needed to take more time lining up, no way I could keep getting this lucky. Left side of the junction has a shoot target, the right side has another hallway to the left of it. The rest of the floor was mostly the same, sending rounds through targets and reloading once, much like the rest of the course, right up until the end of the floor.
I rounded a corner partially blocked by a non-target, to see a small shooting gallery within the killhouse, and a door on the opposite side of the entrance. I have to clear the targets before the door will open, as instructed by the label on it. Two small, circular holograms appear before my eyes, roughly in the middle of the room. Two pops later, my magazine has run out. I haven’t even gotten through my (slightly) practiced reload, when another set of targets appear on the left side of the room. The surprise of more targets caused me to fumble slightly, tapping the magazine against the bottom of the grip. I slap the magazine back into its rightful place within my pistol, tap for good measure, drop the slide, pop the targets. The door remains still, so there are more targets to hit, I reckon. They happened to appear right I thought of them, one close and to the left, the other far and to the right. This forces me to swing my aim across the room, and I nearly missed a target again, barely clipping the right edge of the far target.
Too close, me. Too close. I somehow haven’t missed a target yet, and I intend to keep it that way.
The door finally opened, so I made my way through, and made my way up the stairs that followed the door. At the top of the stairs stood a target peeking over. Almost reflexively, I was steadily advancing past the target, without stopping I put the barrel to the target’s face, then fired. 2 rounds remaining in the magazine. The left side had a familiar set of targets similar to the little practice house. A set of closet like rooms, filled with a couple of shoot and no shoot targets. Bang, round the next corner, bang and a clack. Empty, reload,
don’t fumble it this time, another target around the corner, bang.
The next few hallways were similar to the rest, a no shoot around a corner, a shoot target sitting opposite that, then I saw something I hadn't seen earlier. A direction marking on the floor, telling me to walk past the door, to a piece of half-height cover leading into an incredibly long (for this type of scenario) hallway. At the end was a hostage type target, held in such a way that you had to either hit the slightly poking out head, or the very exposed leg sitting out to the right of the target.
I take a bracing pose against the left side of the wall, on the corner. It took me a moment to line it up properly, but I sent a round flying through my target’s lower thigh, causing it to stumble out of line with the hostage, the hostage remaining exactly in its position. That’s interesting, I didn’t know the targets were dynamic like that. I had been “killing” them with direct chest or headshots for every shot that I had hit, so I had never gotten a chance to see these targets actually do their dynamic animations before. I’ll have to ask how that works later. I finished the target off with a nice shot to the chest, after it had fallen to the floor, crippled due to its leg injury. The target fragmented as the holographic display was pierced by my round, double confirming that these targets were still projections.
The door to my left had opened with a
clunk a moment after I had shot the target for the second time. I preformed more of the same clearing maneuvers and shooting of targets. A pair of these targets happened to line up, almost perfectly for a collateral shot. I took aim against the target further to the rear, my round propelling itself toward the target with its aim true. It took a path where I thought it would destroy both the near and far target with the same shot, however, the bullet only grazed the first hologram, causing it to stumble backward with its dynamic system. Despite not killing the first target, it still smacked against the rear target with a standard killing shot, fragmenting into its hundreds of red shards that I had become accustomed to.
Advancing further into the labyrinth, I swiftly finished off the wounded target that had stumbled backward into a corner. Just to the right of the target, a sign on the wall pointed me downward, telling me to crawl through a claustrophobic, vent-like passage, about [2 feet] tall. I read the sign, dropped to the floor, and slid down through the little hole in the wall. Out the left of the hole, a target stood waiting for whatever round I planned on giving him, out in the open.
I wonder…
I approached the target, pistol held like a little baton. With as much force as I could for good measure, I slapped the target with the pistol.
Whiff
Seems I was wrong. I place my aim onto the target that I had unsuccessfully slapped, fired, then went to move on. Another target was in a little closet behind it, so I spun around to shoot that one too. This killhouse seemed to span for an eternity, and I thought I must be nearing the end of it soon.
Round the corner, no-shoot target, keep going around the U shaped hallway, another no-shoot target in the middle of the hallway. Pass it by, another bend in the wall, with a shoot target just beyond it. I go to fire my weapon, and…
Click.
The slide is open.
That isn’t supposed to happen, I had 3 rounds left in the magazine!
I take a quick inspection of my gun, a casing got stuck in the chamber, and now was blocking up the entire gun’s mechanism. I had been taught what to do in this situation, the malfunction being called a “double feed,” which could occur more frequently if your gun ran older ammunition, which mine did.
I followed the standard jam-clearing procedure for a double feed, which was to first lock the slide to the rear, remove the magazine, drop the slide and rack again to remove the stuck casing, reinsert the magazine, then rack the slide again to seat a new round. With my jam now cleared, I shot the target in front of me in the face, destroying it instantly. Around the corner sat another set of targets, 2 of them I had to shoot.
I get my aim steady on the first, fire, target destroyed. The slide locked back, alerting me to my state of being out of ammo. I reach for another fresh magazine, and come back empty handed.
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK
I was completely out of ammo, and making good time up until now.
Melee won’t work, I had just figured that out, I'm out of magazines so I can’t reload even if I needed to, which I certainly did.
AHA!
I had accidentally let the stuck round fall out with the magazine while I was removing it from the gun, so now it was sitting on the floor. I dive over to it, grab the lonesome round off the floor, and carefully insert the round into the chamber of my pistol. This was a technique that you weren’t exactly supposed to do often, as it wears out the extractor much faster, leading to more frequent issues if it’s done too often. I drop the slide, letting the final round I had to my name seat itself within the chamber, ready to fire.
BANG.
The target shattered, the door on my left
clunking open to reveal the light of day, and a catwalk to a platform above the range. I walk out, and hear another voice call out.
“Show clear, then holster your weapon. Your time is…187.87 seconds, nice work in there. If you want, go watch from above from that catwalk, the next run’s boutta to start.”
I walked up the stairs, legs quite a bit more fatigued than I expected them to be, although I had just been speed-walking for 3 minutes straight, and my heart was beating faster than I expected, probably due to that moment of panic after having my gun just jam up on me, compounded by the fact that I totally ran out of ammo. I reached the top, took a seat in a nice spot near the edge of the small congregation of other competitors, waiting for Finn to come waltzing through the course. There was a display on the top of the roof, showing us an overlay of the first floor, which would also show us the second floor once the competitor got to the staircase.
A few minutes passed, and I wasn't paying attention to Finn's run, since a few people had asked for me to take pictures with them, which I reluctantly agreed to. I could barely hear it, but the end timer from earlier had spoke up again; “show clear, holster your weapon. Your time is… 178.92, fastest time yet, good stuff.”
I broke away from the group who were trying to ask me questions to meet my friend at the top of the stairs, who acknowledged my completion with a firm ‘high five’, a human gesture I had been taught over my time with him.
“Phew, nice little course, huh Mick?” Finn offered.
“Yea… It was fun, albeit tiring.” I responded, with a tail wag
“I’d bet, worse stamina especially. Anyway, how’d ya do?”
“Slightly worse than you, 187 seconds.”
Wow! Nice, uhm, that’s actually really impressive for someone who’s never done this kinda thing before, how’d ya manage that?”
“Might be because I only ever had to hit the targets once, except for that really long range one, with the hostage?”
“Yea I know the one, tricky bastard to hit without clipping the hostage.”
“Did you know those targets are reactive? Actually yea, you probably do because you volunteer here, right?”
“Yep, I'm guessing that’s how you figured out they are? Shot em’ in the leg so he’d stumble? That’s the easiest way to do it, i reckon, but just moving to the right edge to line up an easier headshot is the more advantageous way to do it.”
“Yea that’s what I figured out. Oh, after that there was one kinda standing out in a hallway that I tried to hit with my pistol, didn’t do anything but since that one actually fell over earlier I was wondering if I could save the ammo, why didn’t hitting it work?”
“If you were actually in a situation where you were running around a big ol’ building trying to murder combatants inside to rescue hostages, do you think you would have the ability to whack someone in the face hard enough to outright kill them instantly? No, no you probably wouldn’t. The target impact system only tracks bullets anyway, punches or strikes don’t move fast enough to register on the system.”
“Oh, interesting. Say, how do the holograms work?”
“No clue, all I know is it has something to do with laser projectors and some weird illusions, then it has motion detectors tuned to a specific zone in space for tracking hits, quite interesting stuff if I do say so myself, even if I don't know how it works.”
“Yea, it is,” I said, not exactly registering what was said, “anyway, I think we should go figure out what the next event is, I don’t want to go into it blind like I would have if you hadn’t made me try the little version first.”
“Alright, follow me then.” Finn said, then began walking down the catwalk, leading me to our next event of the day, which I had been informed was a “long range vintage” event.
We made our way back over to the range we were at before, now situated with targets much further out than the aim trainer I had been using earlier. There were large signs, telling me distance next to little plates with concentric rings around a point in the middle. Finn walked back over to his car, pulled out a rifle box, and came back over to me.
"Ah, the wonders of long range shooting! You ready to learn about physics?" Finn exclaimed, clearly excited.
"No, not really, why do you ask?"
"Long range shooting, and especially
extreme range shooting need a lot of little physics calculations for you to actually be able to hit the target from so far away. Bullets are little more than projectiles thrown at high velocity, but there's still things like gravity, wind, and sometimes even the fuckin' Coriolis effect to worry about while your round is flying!"
"Wait, you have to worry about the
rotation of the planet while shooting long range? That's insane!"
"I know, right? that's why I love this stuff!"
The next [20 or 30 minutes] were taken up by a lengthy explanation of how a bullet flies, how a spotter and shooter system functions, how a spotter scope works, how to interpret what the spotter says, the list goes on. This had continued until the whistle blasted again, alerting us of another announcement.
"Everyone come over to the podium, we're having an awards ceremony! Be here in 5 minutes or we start without you, if you aren't already over here!" the voice of the instructor from earlier rang out. Finn and I went over to the podium, where a few boxes labeled 1, 2, and 3 resided.
The ceremony went well, apparently I had gotten third place, Finn got second, and someone who had ran after both of us got first.
After the ceremony, we were each handed a box of differing sizes, the winner got a certificate for a free rifle, Finn got a new '
plate carrier', a thing that was made to hold armor and magazines, and I got
a pair of cargo pants.
I walked over to the little station they had set up nearby, got a few measurements taken, then was handed an (admittedly very fancy) pair of pants, clearly set up for humans instead of venlil.
Thankfully, I didn't have to modify them so I could wear them, there was already a little bit of a notch in the top of the beltline that let it comfortably sit just below my tail.
Another announcement came on soon after I got my new pants; "Next event starts in one hour, get some practice in before that, you might need it."
[First] [Previous] [Next (coming soon)] ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Author's note: This one took a lot longer than the other ones, although it's released in a shorter time frame, how ironic, i guess? I'm considering making a prologue to the story, probably during the exchange program, if I do, it will also help give some more context to Mick that I tried to expand on with this one.
I hope you enjoyed it, expect the next one... eventually.
Oh, and sorry about any walls of text, that was me trying to fill in to hit my self imposed 3000 word count, and also me not knowing how to effectively write "move, shoot, move again" about 20 times in a row.
I am in the process of piecing together a 20" set up because that's the barrel length the rifle was designed for. Every time someone brings up a 20" barrel though, it has to be a clone or some kind of stainless bull barrel hunting rifle. Whats wrong with running a MAWL and REIN on a 20" barrel?
I’m almost 8 weeks pregnant. Super enthused about having a baby, but sadly really struggling with nausea. It’s kindof an all day feeling sick type thing - interspersed with being able to eat and being really hungry. I’m eating when I can but it ends up being mostly Ezekiel bread, peanut butter, crackers, tempeh noodle soup, and smoothies.
I’m super grossed out that I am intermittently craving meat between bouts of wanting to puke. I haven’t craved meat in years since I started my veg journey. I’m certainly not going to be eating meat. I have my first ultrasound in a few days and am hoping to get meds and tips from doc on how to improve my food intake.
In the meantime do any of you mamas and papas have any advice or tips on how to get though this phase? Did any of you crave animal products while pregnant, if so how did you approach that? Suddenly craving meat feels icky
Last round of tests! This time we see what each zonai device does when attached to a shield. We all know about some of these, like rocket shields, but what sort of wacky things do other devices do? If my previous tests are any indication, probably not much. But we'll see! I'll be testing all of these on non-zonai shields to get accurate results. Let's get to it!
Rocket: Shoots you a good distance straight up and automatically deploys the glider at the apex, good replacement for Revali's Gale.
Fan: Blows air in front of you while blocking, can push small enemies.
Wing: Lets you shield jump a bit higher. Warning: Does not work like a glider!
Cart: Basically a skateboard, allows you to shield surf over rougher terrain.
Sled: Similar to the cart, but works better on sand, snow, and grass, reducing the friction from shield surfing.
Time bomb: Similar to bomb barrels or bomb flowers, gives you huge height when you shield surf onto it. Additionally, enemies take all the damage from the explosion if they hit your shield, while Link takes none. Also activates zonai devices inside the blast radius.
Spring: Similar to bomb barrels or bomb flowers, gives you great height on a shield surf. Also knocks back enemies when they hit your shield. The shield surf is one-time use, the knock back is forever.
All emitters, cannon, and hydrant: Projects its effect in a straight line while blocking, target an enemy to aim it at them
Light: Projects light in the direction the shield is facing while blocking.
Mirror: Projects bright light in the direction the shield is facing only while blocking and only when in sunlight or moonlight.
Homing cart: Kinda helps with shield surfing on rough terrain. Doesn't seek out enemies.
Portable pot, balloon, steering stick, big wheel, small wheel, battery, big battery, stabilizer, hover stone, stake, construct head: They make you fall down when you attempt a shield surf. That's it. Good if you like seeing ragdoll Link, but uh, they don't actually do anything that I could find. Let me know in the comments if you found a use for these! I'm not great at fighting using shields so I could've easily missed a use.
Also, most of these devices actively drain battery while blocking, even if they don't do anything. So be cognizant of that.
Hope this helps someone!
Hello. I’m looking to swap my 457 from 22lr to 17hmr. Does anyone have recommendations on barrels/kits? Also any insight into how difficult it is to do. I’m a noob so keep that in mind. Thank you.
As the title says, I am looking for a gunsmith to consult for installation of some Williams fiber-optic iron sights. Intended host is a Ruger American Ranch rifle. The rifle might need to be drilled and tapped, or cut for dovetails, or a combination of both. Do you have any recommendations for someone who is pleasant/professional to deal with and provides good custom work?
I'm planning to attend my first ever comic con this fall, and I really want to cosplay as killa from escape from tarkov. I have almost the entire kit ready to go, but my issue is that the policy is very vague on their policy regarding weapons. From what I have found their website says "Toy guns as long as they do not look like real ones, cannot function or shoot projectiles and have an orange tip on the barrel. The barrel of all prop firearms must be covered with brightly-colored caps."
Noting the part that says "Toy guns that don't look like real ones" and "The barrel must be covered with a brightly colored cap" would leave me to believe that if I have the standard orange tip it should pass this rule correct?
Secondly, my main idea was to get an airsoft gun which is an exact copy of the one I want to reproduce, and with this, I could very easily remove the internal components like the battery and the gun would be 100% in operable.
Basically I'm just trying to figure out if this fits the requirements because I really want to do this costume but I don't want to go through the effort of buying the gun and modifilying it to comply with the rules just to get told it isn't allowed. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Last week I took my first dose of semaglutide and was Exorcist level sick for two and a half days. It took 4 days to be able to eat food and on day 6 I can eat crackers and (barely any) healthy food. I should mention I injected in my stomach.
This week I took my second dose and I feel fine, spent 45 minutes on the treadmill, ate half a sandwich, and did mat exercises. Feeling a lot more normal, just with a lot less (and healthier) food. This week I injected in my outer thigh. I think I'll stick with that.
F 5'9" SW 201 CW 190 GW 140.
I think things are finally underweigh. Spelling error on purpose! 😀
I’m looking to buy an OEM (or aftermarket if it will fit with an afterburner) Glock Gen 5 19/45 slide that’s been cut for an RMR. I’d prefer it to have suppressor height irons on it already too but beggars can’t be choosers. Bonus points for front slide serrations.
Don’t need a barrel or RSA.
I’ll start at $250. Thanks homies!
I recently learned that CZ has a Turkish made semi-auto called the 712 G2 gen 2 which is available for about $400.
Reviews online seem positive, and CZ obviously has a stellar reputation. Since Turkish pistols tend to be great (Canik, Stoeger, SAR) surely there's a price point where the shotguns are decent, too? Something more than "bottom of the barrel" shotguns imported and sold for $200.
A shootout between the A300, CZ 712 G2, and Stoeger M3000 Defense (also Turkish made, with a solid reputation) would be a really cool video.
I think that a lot of people like the idea of a combat S/A shotgun, but can't stomach spending more on their shotgun than for a high-end AR.
When you can buy a BCM recce-16 for $1250, a 1301 tactical for $1400 doesn't seem to offer much. But can a $4-600 shotgun fill that role?
I proudly buy 90% of my vinyl from Amazon and they are by far the best out of everyone. They have the lowest prices (often by $10 or more), great packaging, hassle free returns and are the fastest. No one else comes close. My second choice is walking into Barnes and Noble and buying straight off the rack. Hell I'd rather buy a record from Kohl's or Cracker Barrel than support indie record stores.
Fuck Discogs, fuck the mom and pop record stores and everybody else. Every single time I buy online from discogs or "Billy Bob's records" I get a dinged up record with half the shrink coming off that was falsely advertised as "Near Mint". Hopefully all you Mom and Pop losers go under soon, I will be spending my five digit budget for records with Jeff Bezos.
Buy Amazon.
I proudly buy 90% of my vinyl from Amazon and they are by far the best out of everyone. They have the lowest prices (often by $10 or more), great packaging, hassle free returns and are the fastest. No one else comes close. My second choice is walking into Barnes and Noble and buying straight off the rack. Hell I'd rather buy a record from Kohl's or Cracker Barrel than support indie record stores. I know I'm speaking to a wall here b/c I know no one on here can actually afford new records, I see all your cheap garage sale posts of your moldy used records but for people with money, buy Amazon.
Fuck Discogs, fuck ebay, fuck the mom and pop record stores and everybody else. Every single time I buy online from discogs or "Billy Bob's records" I get a dinged up record with half the shrink coming off that was falsely advertised as "Near Mint". Hopefully all you Mom and Pop losers go under soon, I will be spending my five digit budget for records with Jeff Bezos. Thank You Jeff, I will be a lifelong customer.
Buy Amazon.