[Flashback] Father,son and crossbow

[Giph]

507 AV Summer 12th Giph was nearly bouncing around in their meager home at the news his mother had shared with him this morning, his father had found a sliver of free time for the both of us in his busy time in his work for rhysol and was coming for a visit! What was more, he had written in the letter that he had a little gift for his on with him. “Giph, calm down a little.” His mother said in a gentle tone, barely keeping a giggle out of her voice at the sight of her hyperactive son. “But ma! Pops is coming to visit!” Giph said with uncontainable glee as he came to a stop right in front of her. His behaviour let a chuckle escape from her. “I know, I know. But why don't you calm down a bit, your mother can use her rest you know.” she gave her son a gentile smile. “Fine. I'll be good.” Giph said, his mother just gave another chuckle and gave him a affectionate pat on the head as she headed back towards the kitchen. “He will be here soon and then you can finally spend some time with him. I'm going to cook dinner so why don't you wait....” his mother was interrupted by a rapping on the door. Before his mother even had a chance to tell him to open the door he already there. A massive smile on his young face as he pulled the door open, revealing the figure of his father towering over the young boy. “Pops!” Threw his arms around the taller man. Barely racing up to his midsection, the man just looked down towards his son with a happy smile as he awkwardly patted his son's head. “So where is mother at the moment squirt?” His father asked when he finally managed to gently dislodge his kid from his legs. “I'm in the kitchen Lenir.” His wife shouted her response from the back of the apartment as she was lighting the stove. “Now don't stay standing at the porch like a stranger and come in already.” Lenir let out an embarrassed chuckled and stepped inside of the room. Giph followed him like an overeager puppy. “You are a bit earlier then I expected Lenir.” Giph's mother continued as she began to rustle around in the kitchen, taking out a variety of tools and foodstuffs for the meal she was preparing. “Well I was done with my duties a bit sooner then expected. So I thought it wouldn't hurt to come around a bit early. Especially since I'm not able to come around a lot with my duties to the ebonstryfe.” Lenir said as he walked over towards the kitchen. “So how has everything been going?” He asked in a lower tone, concern creeping into the man's voice. His mother gave a quick look to her young son before they both continued talking in hushed tones. Making sure that their son couldn't overhear their conversation. Not that the curious little bugger didn't try to. As soon as he noticed his ma and pops where shutting him out of the conversation he tried to overhear what they where talking about by trying to inch closer to them as subtly as he could manage. Which wasn't very subtle at all and his dad noticed it as soon as he started. “Why don't I go do something with giph while you cook dinner? You did say you still needed some time to get everything in order for dinner. Its been a while since I had some time alone with Giph.” He said as he began speaking a bit louder so his son could hear it. It didn't take Giph's mum to long before she got over her confusion and just nodded. “yes, that might be a good idea. Keeps the little hellion from ruining dinner too.” She said with a sly smile on her face. “Unlike the last few times. “Hey!! That was only once!” Giph whined in indignation as his cheeks flushed in embarrasment. “Oh, maybe you should tell me that story instead.” His father teased his son. “NO she doesn't.” Giph squeaked out as he grabbed his father by the hand and started to drag him towards the door. “Why don't you show me how to shoot a crossbow like you promised last time you where here?” he lied, sure he had wanted to learn how to use that cool weapon his dad used for a long time, but his father had never promised to teach him the last time he was here. He just hoped his father didn't know that anymore. Luckily for him either his dad decided to play along or his fib had worked. “Be back in an hour or two tough, dinner will be ready by then!” Giph's mum yelled after the two men vanishing through the door.

[Giph]

his father had led giph to a small secluded alley not to far away from their home and was using some random things laying around to make a a small crude target.. a small piece of wood leaning against the wall of a corner. “Well then, lets start with the lesson.” His father said as he took his crossbow of his back and handed the heavy piece of equipment to his son, who wobbled a bit under the unexpected wieght of the weapon before he stabilized himself. A giddyness went over the small child as the prospect of shooting something, though that faded as soon he noticed the crossbow wasn't loaded and his father hadn't given him any to actually shoot with. “Pop.. I think you forgot giving me a bolt to shoot with.” Giph asked in an unsure tone, especially when he saw the look on his father face that spelled out that he was going to work before he was allowed to shot anything. “I'm not just going to give you a loaded crossbow without you know how to use one. That's just asking for something to go wrong. No I'm going to explain how to use one to you first before I'm giving you anything to shoot with at all.” He knelt down next to his son and began fixing how his son was holding the crossbow and how he was standing. “You gotta widen your knees more so you are more stable. If you are stable your aim will be stable too.” He said. “Sure you can stabilize yourself in other ways, like lying on the ground but most of the time stable footing is the best way to make sure your aim doesn't go all over the place.” He looked at his son. “You have any questions about it lad?” Giph just shook his head. “Nope, keep good footing otherwise you can't aim well. Simple, now can we shoot something?” Giph asked in a desperate tone. “Do you know how to fire and how to aim?” his father asked in a gentile tone. “Of course! You just pull the trigger when you point it towards somebody!” Giph's answer provoked a little bit of laughter from his father. “Its a lot more complicated then that.” His father said with a laugh. “Look you hold your dominant hand at the trigger, in your case your left, and support the entire thing with your other hand around here.” He helped his young son place his hands in the right spots on the crossbow.

[Giph]

Giph followed his fathers command as he gripped the crossbow in what his father called the right way. “Now to further stabilize your aim you shove the but, thats the back of the crossbow.” His father reached around him and tapped the part. “Against your shoulder, not only does it make the entire setup even more stable and less to weaver. But it also brings your eye in line with the path of your arrow. Making lining up your target and the path of the arrow a lot easier” The young boy struggled a bit as he tried to lift the heavy weapon up to his shoulder and keep it steady. His father quickly saw it and helped his son to support the weapon as he corrected his son's stance again. “Now like I said, to aim you look down the stock so you can easily line up your bolt with your target. To fire you gentily squeeze the trigger. Don't pull on it, otherwise you will end up jerking the crossbow to your left in your case.And that small distance might just be the thing that will let you miss your target over long distances.” As his father ended his lengthy explanation about aiming. “Now lets go to the fun part and let you shoot some stuff. Just give me the crossbow so I can load it for you, you still aren't strong enough for that." His father explained Giph had an expression of uncontrolled glee on him as his father finally got through the boring stuff and let him shoot something. When he told him to hand over the bow because he wouldn't be able to load it by himself he scowled at his father. “I am strong enough! Just tell me how and I'll show you!” Giph said in a petuland childish voice as he took a step back from his patiently smiling father. “Oh really? Well then you just have to pull the string of the crossbow back and hook it behind the mechanism there.” He took a step back and let his son give it a try anyway. Giph gave a huf and rabbed the string with both of his hands and tried to pull it up with all he got. With minimal success. After chimes of struggling he didn't manage to load the crossbow and he finally accepted that his father had been right, he was to young for it.

[Giph]

His father just chuckled when his son handed the crossbow back to him with just a bit of grumbeling. “Don't worry son. You will grown into it.” he said as he easily loaded the bow and handed it back towards his son. Giph fumbled with the large crossbow for a few minutes, Trying to hold it exactly like his father had told him, left hand at the trigger, right hand supporting the weapon at the stock while trying to keep himself stable, it was a hard job though, his inexperience combined with the weight of the crossbow kept him struggling to keep it all level and his aim was swerving all over the place. His father either didn't notice or thought it was normal for a first timer to have bad aim like that and just nodded, signifying that he should try and shoot one off. He shoved the stock of the crossbow against his left shoulder and peered down the stock of the crossbow at the flimsy target his father had constructed, his tongue peeked out out of his mouth in concentration as he tried to aim the heavy weapon that rested in his hands. When he focused the shaky weapon over the target, or at least good enough for him to try and fire he slowly squeezed the trigger. The bolt shot towards the target and missed it by at least a mile, hitting the stone walls of the alley they where in. Giph just scowled and he handed the crossbow back to his father. “Darn! Reload it! I wanna try again. He said in an exited tone of voice. His father just chuckled and reloaded the bow and gave it back. “there where a lot of wrong things with that stance, you probably noticed that.” He moved behind his son and knelt behind him. “You really need to pull the crossbow against your shoulder. to make sure it can't move at all, and tuck your right elbow against your torso, that helps keeping the entire thing stable since you are able to carry the weight better then.” He helped his son shift into the stance. When giph tried to lean his head to the left to align his eyes with the stock his father tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head. “I wasn't done yet, you also need to be a bit higher with that crossbow, so that you won't need to lean your head that much. So remember, crossbow In shoulder, right elbow tucked against your chest.” Giph didn't thought it felt that much better. He still wobbled and all, and the improvement was pretty minor as far as he felt it. He once more looked down the stock, tried to take aim and gentily squeezed the trigger. To his great surprise the bot instead of hitting the wall missed the wooden target only by a a few foot instead of missing by a mile.

[Giph]

his father gave his son an approving slap on the shoulder after he fired. Giph handed the crossbow back to his father for him to reload. “That was a lot better then your first shot giph,” his father complimented his shot. Which brought a smile on the young boy's face. His father thought he was doing good at it! “There still are a lot of things you need to improve, its the first time you held a crossbow after all so we can't expect miracles. But as a complete novice you have made some progress.” His father finished reloading the pitch black crossbow and handed it back to his son and gave a quick look at the stand of the sun. “Well time really flies. This will be the last tip and shot before we need to head back to your mother. She said she only needed two hours to make dinner, and those are almost over.” “Oh come on!” Giph whined like only young children could. “why just one more shot, It will be a long time before you come to see us and give me another lesson!” His father just shook his head and gave him the crossbow. “You know your mom would kill me for getting back home late. Besides, I don't think practicing hungry would do any good.” His father explained in a firm tone. “Now the last lesson is about breathing and the influence it has on your aiming.” He motioned his son to get back into the aiming position, which the young boy immediately did. He knew better then to press on against his dad's will. “Now when you breathe your chest is moving, which throws of your aim slightly as it does so. Take a deep breath, you will see it.” Giph followed his fathers advice and breathed in deeply and just like his father said,, his crossbow drifted with the movement of his chest. “I see it pops.” Giph replied. “But what can you do about that? Hold your breath while aiming?” Giph said with sarcasm. Holding once breath didn't seem like a good idea, seeing how long aiming could take and all. “Kinda, when you are aiming you breathe out till you have nothing left, then without any drift on your crossbow you squeeze the trigger.” Giph raised his eyebrow at the seemingly simplicity of that last tip. “Don't look at me like that, its harder then it looks!” His father said in a slightly irritated tone at having his knowledge pulled in question. “Just try it yourself if you don't believe me.” Giph just got a determined look on his face as he slid back into the stance, his unpracticed hands feeling for the right way as he aimed the loaded crossbow at the target. Just like his father asked of him he took a breath and slowly let it go as he aimed at the target. When he thought he had a beat on it he slowly squeezed the trigger and let the bolt fly. And once again it missed the mark and clattered against the stones of the alley. “Damn it!” Giph cursed as he handed back the crossbow to his father. “You sure we can't go once more? I nearly had it?” His father just shook his head. “Next time Giph, we need to get home.” He began to gather up his bolts. After that he just gave his son a pat on the shoulder and began to lead him out of the alley.

[Persona]

Thread Award! Giph: Skills: Stealth +1 Observation +1 Subterfuge +1 Persuasion +2 Weapon (Crossbow) +3 Lores: The Importance of Stability How to Hold a Crossbow How to Aim a Crossbow How to Load a Crossbow Breathing Makes Aiming Difficult Notes: I notice you are paying Squalor living expenses. This is fine if you roleplay living a life of abject poverty, but since you have an income, and a place to live, it seems more likely that you’re living at least at Poor level. If you feel this grade was unfair in any way, or would like to request changes to this grade, please feel free to PM me and we can discuss it.