ataraxionlogs | Parental Consent for Baby Learning How To Shoot Stuff

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Parental Consent for Baby Learning How To Shoot Stuff

CHARACTERS: Firo, Muscovy, maybe Rey later on
LOCATION: Somewhere near the treehouse
WARNINGS: Sparring with knives, talk of shooting things
SUMMARY: Sometimes you just need a "yes he's allowed to go on the field trip" type paper slips, only that this time it is about Mystique teaching you how to shoot a rifle and she wants to see the signature in person. So Muscovy brings one of his adults. This is why it is good to have personal adults.
Note: Backdated to shortly after this

They've been working on techniques that take the surroundings into account lately, specifically using the jungle ground and trees and all those things to one's advantage when doing the close range fighting that fighting with daggers is (well, as long as you don't throw them, but so far they haven't dabbled with that and Muscovy doesn't think that he has enough daggers to really risk losing ones unless it is absolutely necessary. And, more importantly, not enough of a chance to get replacement ones.

Either way, they have been rolling around and falling from low branches of trees and similar things for a while now, and when they take a break, Muscovy is rather muddy all over. For a moment, he only flops down after they stop, lying on his back and catching his breath, rather happy with the whole situation - it's an activity with his big bro, and togetherness is still one of his major factors for happiness, even if his body hurts a bit now (the endorphins from all the physical activity surely don't hurt, not that he knows of them).

But there is something that he needed to ask, and so he sits back up and looks around to locate Firo.

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Much like the crowded alleyways and backstreets he knows so well, the jungle offers plenty of aid to a fighter. If Firo didn't know any better, he'd almost think he's developing a grudging fondness for the place--it may be nothing like his city, but there are some familiarities if you look close enough.

It's for much more than that that he enjoys these sessions of course, and by the end he's grinning hard and breathing heavily. Just the way it should be.

He braces his hands on his knees as he rises. "You did good. I think even Ronnie'd be impressed."

When he straightens all the way, he sees Muscovy looking up and around. He walks closer and offers his hand to help pull him to his feet. "What's up?"

"I was looking for you, yes?"

The praise is nice, and he is happy to get it, even though he doesn't feel like it needs to be replied to or would even know what to reply to it.

Firo's hand is accepted as well, and Muscovy will hold on to it after he's on his feet, looking up at him. "I talked to a pretty woman today."

“Well, you got me.”

Firo’s response is slow as he tries not to sound as guarded as he is. “Is that so?” Muscovy’s obviously far too young to be looking at girls that way, but what’s up with mentioning her looks? Whatever it means, Firo hopes that he’s not going to be expected to advise on anything romantic, even of the puppy love variety. “What’d you guys say?”

"She said that she would teach me how to make and shoot a rifle, but she wanted for my parents to be there. Or someone who is like my parents, and you and Rey are my adults, yes?"

The adults that live with him or that he lives with, but also the adults that he has used before when people asked where his parents of responsible adults were.

Just guns--what a relief! Firo immediately relaxes.

He considers them his adults? Firo wouldn't say he's totally shocked by this--they have established that they're all family, right?--but it'd be an understatement to say that he's pleased by it. The bright, beaming smile that wants to spring onto his face is hard to keep down; indeed, he doesn't quite manage to do so even as he remembers that he's supposed to be cool about these things.

He is, after all, the adult.

He clears his throat and wipes some imaginary dust off of his sleeve. He still can't wipe off the smile, though, and his answer is as cheerfully certain as can be. "Of course we are. So we've gotta go meet this lady and she'll teach you all that? Sounds like it's all good stuff to know."

Muscovy sees no reason to think that an adult should not smile and be happy. Everyone should be happy, and smiling is the main indicator of this. So all that Firo's smile means to him is that he is happy and fine with him learning how to shoot a rifle. Both of which is good.

"Yes. I think she worried because I am not very big and a lot of adults think that you need to be big to learn how to defend yourself." Which he personally thinks is stupid, the weaker people look the likelier it is that someone attacks them after all, isn't it? But it still is a thing.

"Well, we'll go set her straight. The sooner you can get on that, the more time you'll have to learn some really good stuff."

Firo would agree with Muscovy; he feels better knowing that the kid is as equipped to fight as he could possibly be. And more teachers are always better because that means more perspectives and more possible skills.

He's all set to march off to find this potential teacher, but stops short. "--though, wait, is she gonna wanna meet Rey too?" The 'adult' asks the child. He doesn't actually know too much about what's normal about this kind of thing, though Muscovy probably also isn't the person to ask.

"...She didn't say that she wanted to meet more than one of you." But on the other hand Rey would probably want to meet her to, and should Firo ever be taken away it would be good if Raven would know that she has the continued permission of one of his adults to teach him how to shoot a rifle.

"But she didn't say that only one of you could come."

At least Muscovy has his priorities straight.

Firo considers his words, weighing if it’s important either way and if it’s worth bothering Rey about. Suddenly, he grins. “If we all go together, it could be like a family trip.”

He reaches down to try to brush his fingers through Muscovy’s hair. “Well, what do you want?”

It is, after all, about the kid.

"We are a family."

He nods, liking the implication that Firo offers. Family has, to him, always been a deal of not leaving even when they left - people to whom he could come back to and who would come back for him no matter what happened, people whose importance to one another was not based in politics or fleeting emotions but something more profound that made it pretty much impossible to truly leave one another. How strong someone is was less important with family, only to protect one another. He'd promised his sister to becomes strong, to make them strong through that.

But he'd never thought of the aspect where people bound together thus did things together as something specific to family. Friends and neighbours did things together, too, and separated after. But maybe that's a human thing, or at least a thing of people with families and all that. He never observed it in Maglor or Galadriel, but then, the little time that he could observe them with family things were probably too strained for "family trips".

"Did you do a lot of family trips back home?" With the family that he had back there that he told him about.

Firo nods back, the motion firm and certain. "We are."

How'd he go from having nobody to having this? It's times like these that Firo realizes he must be one of the luckiest people on the planet. ...On both planets he's been on.

He shakes his head. "Nah, not really. We always met up at the same place--Alveare--every day. So it wasn't a trip, but..." He laughs awkwardly and looks away. Is this next bit cheesy? "But it's being together that's important. Don't you think?"

"Being together is nice." He won't deny that. "But the important thing about family is that even if you are not together and even if you don't see each other for a long time, you still stay family. And even if you have to hurt each other or let someone hurt the other you can still come back after and you don't have to be strong to become friends again then."

Firo beams to hear these words; Muscovy is a smart kid, isn't he? And this proves that he has a good heart.

That look of pride falters as Muscovy carries on--hurting each other? Well... Thinking of his Family, the Martillos, he supposes he can't argue with the kid. They have the right to take him out if that's what's needed. Is that the kind of thing Muscovy's talking about? He tries not to let the thought sour this moment, and he reminds himself that he shouldn't have a problem with such things. So why does it bother him?

Firmly, he nods. "You're right. I'm still gonna be your family no matter what. It'll never matter how strong you are or where you are."

He almost considers letting part of that slide, but he just can't. He moves to rest his hand on Muscovy's shoulder and tries to look him in the eyes. "...And, Muscovy, I--the only people who could make me hurt you or let you get hurt are my bosses." He offers a lopsided smile. "They probably wouldn't do that to a kid like you."

The Martillos would love Muscovy, he's sure. He can't say they'd never do something that would allow Muscovy to be hurt, but he knows it's unlikely even without the fact that they're on different planets.

He considers Firo's words for a long moment and then nods very seriously, and when he speaks there is great weight in his words.

"I would never do anything bad to you unless my boss would tell me to." Because at that point it just would not be in his power to not do it. Not that it is likely that he could hurt Firo much now, but once he's big... and he will be, everyone agreed on that. "Or let someone do bad things to you.

No matter how strong I'll get or where me or you are."

Firo nods in approval. That Muscovy would prioritize his boss's orders over Firo is the most natural thing in the world to him. And it puts them on the same page.

He smiles. He would go for another hair ruffle, but that could ruin the dignity of the moment. So instead he tries to give Muscovy a manly clap on the shoulder. "Thank you."

There's something nice about knowing people have your back, even when he'd much prefer to be the one taking care of Muscovy. "But you worry about yourself first."

That's why he's the adult, right? Firo's known very few adults who actually looked out for the children in their lives, but that only makes him more determined to do it for Muscovy. Whether that's fighting his enemies or encouraging him in any endeavor that would help him fight them himself.

"To worry about myself also means to worry for you, because if you and Rey are gone I need to find a new adult, yes? And I would be less safe if I didn't have you, because you are always safer when there are people that you belong to who are strong. Because people will know that if they hurt you, they might make the people or person that you belong to angry. And I like being with you because it feels very warm, and it would be colder if you weren't here."

Things like "looking after yourself before others" aren't nearly as straightforward as Firo seems to make them out to be.

...Well. That's a lot more pragmatic than he expected.

"Yeah, I guess..." He scratches his head; to be honest, he's not even sure if he quite understands what Muscovy is talking about. The warmth he can understand, though, and that's nice.

"We're still gonna do our best to stick around for you. So hopefully you're not gonna get to the point where you've gotta do that."

"I will do my best to not leave you, too."

But back on topic.

"We can ask Rey now if she'll come, yes?"

"Oh--!"

It's amazing how they verge into such heavy territory from that. Firo nods and picks up the pace. "Yeah, let's see. She should be around..."

They're near enough that he supposes she can hear him if she's home. He cups his hands around his mouth and calls, "Hey, Rey!"

After bringing home some game fairly recently, Rey is in the process of cleaning up back at the house. Dipping her hands in some rainwater to cleanse the blood from her fingers, she dries them afterwards with a piece of cloth when she hears Firo's voice calling to her.

She blinks, taking a moment to recognize that he's shouting her name specifically. She gets up, reaching for the window with her dried hand and pulls aside a frame concealing the house's interior. She looks down to find Firo and Muscovy at the ground level.

Squinting through the daylight, she calls back: "Is something wrong?"

While she could have been within earshot to hear some of their discussion, she was in a bit of a daze to be doing much eavesdropping. Besides, she isn't one to listen in one her loved one's supposedly private conversations.

Muscovy will leave it to Firo to call back and explain the situation; Firo can shout a lot louder, anyway.

Meanwhile, he'll go around and gather up the few items that the dropped or set down while training.

"Nothin' wrong at all." He bounces up onto his toes, too happy to even realize that he'd normally try to stifle such exuberance. "Some lady said she'd teach Muscovy how to make a rifle and use it, but she needs his family to be there, so we've gotta give our permission."

Because they're his family. Isn't life wonderful?

He looks over at Muscovy for confirmation. That's right, right?

Makes sense.

It's funny, since Muscovy is technically older than the both of them, and yet needs their permission in order to do a thing he not only wants, but needs.

Furthermore, even if that weren't the case, no responsible parental figure in their right mind would say-- "That's great." But there you have it.

She closes the window, opens the hatch door to the ladder over the tree and climbs down, before allowing herself to drop a good ten feet with a heavy thud. Afterwards, she straightens herself, clasping her hands together as she turns to both Muscovy and Firo in one swift motion.

"Hell, I could help as well, if needed," she realizes, like the totally responsible adult she is.

Muscovy nods when Firo looks at him, almost bouncing on his heels. Yes, that is it. And looks at Rey in surprise when she announces her realization.

"You have a firearm and can teach me how to shoot it?"

Now that is good news. Two teachers with different kinds of firearms maybe?

Firo beams at her agreement. Rey is the smart one, so he knew she wouldn't disagree, but it's nice to have everything neatly confirmed. And this means that family trip is a go!

He nods as she faces them. "The more the merrier, right?"

Rey nods at Muscovy's query. "Of course I can. I used to be a soldier."

Firo knows, but she's not sure if she's ever told the boy this before. But now that he knows, he can also be assured that he has other options as well.

Never mind the fact that she's totally okay with teaching a little kid how to use a gun. Or, rather, someone who looks very much that young. Oh, the scorn she would be receiving right now...

"The more the merrier," she agrees.

He'll definitely get back to her about that (at the latest point after the Tranquility falls off the cliff and they do whatever they'll do. Just that he'll need a real firearm of his own at that point.)

"The more the merrier." he echoes, liking the sound of it. It rings like so much truth. More people are livelier than few people, and lively people are a merry thing to have.

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Parental Consent for Baby Learning How To Shoot Stuff

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