Archery, what a joke [open]

Subject: Archery, what a joke [open] Thu Feb 28, 2013 3:58 am

Terra Knighte
daughter of Nyx

253 Words ᴥ Tags; none really

Terra wandered into the arena idly, planning to practice some weaponry. She'd recently decided to step-up her game. There wasn't any particular reason, she'd just decided to do it. She'd been a Cabin Leader for a while now, it was time to start acting like it. Well, she had acted responsibly in many ways, just not really with weaponry. For instnace she really needed to practive archery. Terra was pretty terrible at archery, it was one of her worst weapons. At least she was better at it than wrestling.
Shuddering slightly Terra walked over to the weaponry shed and shifted through the piles of stuff. Eventually she found a bow roughly the right size and some serviceable arrows. Then she walked back out into the arena, stopping in front of a target. Obviously not directly in front, she was standing a couple of metres away. She wrinkled her nose slightly as she picked up an arrow and put it to the string of the bow. Why was she even putting herself through this? Oh yeah, because she wanted to be more leader-ish. The Nyx Cabin Leader drew back the arrow and let it loose. It sailed through the air and landed on the second-most outer ring of the target.
Terra snorted at her own bad aim. "Oh that was just terrible." she said out loud. Then she glanced around quickly to see if anyone had heard her. She didn't want someone to think she was talking about their archery instead of her own.

Posts : 76 Join date : 2013-02-28 Age : 30

Astoria emerged from the Armoury with her own set of bows and arrows. They weren't her forte, but in battle, you had to be ready with anything. As she approached the arena, Astoria saw another girl there, practising her archery too. "I see that I'm not the only one here to practise. Times like these you wish you were child of Apollo, huh?" she joked, laughing slightly.

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-06-12 Age : 34 Location : USA

"Or you could find a daughter of Eros to give you some basic training. You two want some help?" The voice near them was odly sugar sweet, and belonged to a tall slender girl with blond curls. You'd think with the designer labels on her clothes and the perfectly applied make-up, she would have a smug look on her face. But all she looked was honest. Archery was her one big talent, other than making people fall for each other for a couple hours upon eye contact.

In her hand was a rather nice bow, one she likely had commissioned from the Hepheastus cabin. "Trick number one, don't be discouraged if you miss. Everyone misses. I'm pretty sure there's a story somewhere about my dad missing sometimes too." She offered a warm smile. Stepping back, she got brought her bow up, notched an arrow, and on her exhale, shot. It smacked right in the red circle, though not dead center. "Hmmm, released too soon..."

Posts : 76 Join date : 2013-02-28 Age : 30

Astoria's brows shot up in surprise. The arrow'd hit the bullseye. Of course, her father was Eros. It was in her blood to be amazing at archery, really. Being a child of Demeter seemed more like a food source. She wasn't complaining, and yet... "Good aim," she gulped. Astoria doubted that she'd ever be as good as this newcomer.

"I'd love some help, actually. Thanks," she admitted. "Astoria, by the way. You are?"

Subject: Re: Archery, what a joke [open] Thu Feb 28, 2013 2:34 pm

Terra Knighte
daughter of Nyx

265 Words ᴥ Tags; none really

Terra grinned at the girl, slightly relieved. So she hasn't thought that Terra was talking to her. Her grin turned into more of a smirk at the girl's comment. "Actually I've never really wanted be a child of Apollo. Our parents are pretty much opposites." It was true, light and dark, day and night. Apollo and Nyx didn't really have anything in common.
Terra whirled around as another girl spoke. She spoke in a strangely sweet tone of voice. When Terra actually saw her she assumed the girl was a daughter of Aphrodite. Designer clothes, plenty of makeup, it was the obvious conclusion. But then she referred to herself as a daughter of Eros. Close enough. God of love and goddess of love, it didn't really make much difference when it came to their child. Except for the fact that children of Eros could shoot well, and most Aphrodite kids couldn't shoot at all.
Terra smiled slightly at the girl's first lesson. She was never discouraged when she missed, it happened all the time. With Terra off-track arrows were a fact of life. She watched the girl fire her arrow. It zipped through the air to land in the centre circle. But it wasn't an exact bulls-eye. It was close enough in Terra's opinion though. If she was in battle that girl still would have hit something. "There are plenty of stories of your dad missing." she informed the girl. "My name's Terra by the way." she added as an afterthought. Despite her being a acabin leader some people still didn't know who she was.

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-06-12 Age : 34 Location : USA

"Name's Helena. Second lesson, don't release before you're ready. Even if you aren't shooting as fast as you want to be. It's better to shoot slow and on target then shoot fast and miss completely." The blond was used to being thought of as an Aphrodite child. Honestly, the designers weren't even her idea, but gifts from her adopted parents. They were constantly trying too hard to make her happy, after almost losing her last year.

"It's really nice to meet you both. Alright. Lemme see you shoot. I bet I can make model archers out of both of you yet!" Stepping back, the blond would pull her hair back into a messy ponytail. "Lets see what you can do!"

Posts : 76 Join date : 2013-02-28 Age : 30

Astoria took a deep breath. She aimed, and pulled the bow back. She shot the arrow. It was bad, but at the very least, it landed on the target, albeit the very last ring. The embarrassing thing was that that was a good shot, because she was just that terrible at archery. Astoria lowered her bow and swept a fire red lock from her face.

She accessed the expression of her new tutor, and it didn't seem very positive. "Still think I can be helped?"

Posts : 1234 Join date : 2010-12-26 Location : Canada

"Hey, not everyone's a sharpshooter. Important thing is to practice." The voice, which contained a strong Canadian accent, belonged to Griffin Reinhart, son of Apollo. The athletic-looking teen strolled towards the girls that were currently firing on the targets, his custom-built repeating crossbow in one hand. He wore brown cargo pants, sneakers and a dark T-shirt.
"You ever considered a crossbow, like mine? Some of the archery puritans say it's not a real shooter's weapon, but it's easy to use, and powerful." He loosed a bolt to prove his point, which drove itself into a bullseye with noticeably more force than a regular arrow.

Subject: Re: Archery, what a joke [open] Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:40 am

Terra Knighte
daughter of Nyx

218 Words ᴥ Tags; still nothing

Terra grinned at Helena. "Nice to meet you." she said brightly. Terra plucked another arrow and put it to the string again. She drew it back and aimed carefully. She was determined to do better than her last shot so she could feel like she was improving, even if this shot was just a fluke. She at least didn't want to get worse. Terra released her arrow, watching it sail through the air. She breathed and inward sigh of relief when it landed on the third-most outer ring. Good, she could disillusion herself in thinking that she was getting better now.
Terra had to smile as Astoria asked Helena if she still thought she could help her. It was always good to know that there were others who failed at archery. The daughter of Nyx raised an eyebrow as a guy wandered into the scene. He was holding a crossbow in his hand. Terra wrinkled her nose at it. When she had first arrived at camp her archery instructor had offered to teach her crossbow. After one shot they both new it wouldn't work out. Regular archery was so much easier.
"Don't crossbows take forever to re-load?" she asked lightly. "And besides, a regular bow is much less confusing than a crossbow. I speak from experience." she added.

Posts : 76 Join date : 2013-02-28 Age : 30

Astoria glanced at the crossbow in the boy's hands. It did look inviting, despite what Terra said. At this point, she'd accept any help, and if a crossbow worked for a son of Apollo, why not her?

She looked Griffin down, and bit her lip. He was admittedly attractive. Astoria shook her head. She was here to practise archery (and gods did she need it). Not anything else. "Could I have a go at that?I mean, I'm not going to turn down anything at this point."

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-06-12 Age : 34 Location : USA

It was hard for Helena not to visibly cringe when the boy approached. Stiffening, her demeanor changed, her face taking on a sour look. "Uh, yeah, I can still teach you. Lemme just show you..." Walking over, taking a wide berth away from Griffin, the blond began moving Astoria's body and limbs to the right positions. Then she did the same for Terra. "There. Now, remember to breath, and always shoot on an exhale." she offered, nodding. "Bring the string all the way back to your cheek."

Looking at the crossbow, she wrinkled her nose. "They take too long to reload. I could pop off three arrows to your one bolt. Two if you're fast enough." Looking back at her pupils, she nodded. "Try it now."

Posts : 76 Join date : 2013-02-28 Age : 30

Sensing that both Terra and Helena had something against crossbows, Astoria shot an apologetic shrug at Griffin. Doing as Helena had directed, she pulled the string back until her hand was at her cheek. She took a deep breath, eyes fixed on that little red dot. "I can do this," she whispered to herself.

Thwack!

The arrow had embedded itself in ring that outlined the ring. A smile immediately broke out on her face, stretching from ear to ear. She turned to Helena. "I did it!" she said, not quite believing herself. "Thanks."

Posts : 1234 Join date : 2010-12-26 Location : Canada

Griffin nodded appreciatively, taking in stride the fact that two of the girls present were clearly the kinds of archery puritans he had joked about. He grinned when one of them, the experienced shooter of the group, claimed that she could fire faster with a longbow than he could with his weapon. Setting the stock to his shoulder, Griffin put a grouping of three bolts into the centre of the target with the speed of a practiced rifle marksman, not stopping between each pull of the trigger.

"Yeah, most crossbows do take a long time to reload. That's why I had mine custom-built with the bowstring rigged to snap back into place after every shot. Firing this is basically like firing a gun, except no recoil. And there's a ten-round magazine. Cost me a lot of favours for the Hephaestus cabin, but it was worth it."

Subject: Re: Archery, what a joke [open] Sat Mar 02, 2013 6:35 pm

Terra Knighte
daughter of Nyx

238 Words ᴥ Tags; still nothing

Terra smiled slightly as Helena came over to move her body into the correct stance. This always happened with archery teachers. They would move her into the right position and she would fire a pretty good shot. Unfortunately, Terra could never remember what the correct stance was unless someone moved her limbs for her. Terra sighed inwardly and drew back the bow string once again. She aimed carefully, taking into account the slight wind. Then she released the bow string, watching the arrow shoot through the air. With a loud thwack! it landed in the third-most inner ring of the target. "Well, that's definitely an improvement." Terra commented.
The daughter of Nyx rolled her eyes as the Apollo boy got out his crossbow and fired some bolts into the target. Terra really did hate crossbows. They just irritated her. They were heavy and confusing and took a while to re-load. Well, they did if you didn't have a custom crossbow like the guy did. She rolled her eyes as he spoke again. "Well, most people don't have custom-made crossbows, so they still take forever to load." she said, slightly annoyed. All she had wanted to do was practise some archery in peace. She hadn't minded when Astoria wanted to practice as well, or when Helena offered to help. But she did mind when some Appolo boy started showing off his fancy crossbow. It was just irritating in general.

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-06-12 Age : 34 Location : USA

Helena didn't look impressed by his fancy crossbow. She just looked irate. Boys in general made her angry, especially because they tend to be cocky, and irritating, and show offs. Maybe she was just judgmental, but who could blame her after her life. For now, she rolled her eyes. "And what happens if it breaks? I know how to fashion a new bow if I need to." She grumbled. She also kept a roll of bowstring in her pocket at all times. She was a paranoid person after-all. "Now. Keep thinking on this stance. Keep trying it. Step out of it now. I'll reset you. Repetition is the key to memorization."

Posts : 1234 Join date : 2010-12-26 Location : Canada

"Okay, I get it. No need to be that way, I was just trying to help. It's cool," Griffin replied. Clearly, his intentions had not been interpreted the way he wanted to. Part of him wanted to accuse the girls of overreacting, but he quickly decided against it. There was never a need to make new enemies.
"She's right, though," he said, talking to Astoria now. "The weapon doesn't matter so much as the person. Repetition's important. You should listen to that."

Posts : 76 Join date : 2013-02-28 Age : 30

Astoria stepped out of the shooting stance, and waited for Helena to help her. The boy had backed down, and seemed to be leaving them to practise in peace. She glanced at the crossbow a final time. She probably couldn't shoot it. She could hardly use a simple contraption on wood and string, forget anything else. He'd said the weapon didn't matter, anyway.

She focused on the bullseye, and pulled her hand to her cheek. Thwack!

Subject: Re: Archery, what a joke [open] Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:11 am

Terra Knighte
daughter of Nyx

185 Words ᴥ Notes; sorry for the shorter post

Terra blinked in surprise at Helena's words. "Wait, seriously? You know how to make your own bow? That's so cool." she said brightly. Terra herself would fail epically if she ever tried any sort of wood work. It wasn't really her thing. But, then again, Terra's 'thing' mainly consisted of playing with shadows. She hadn't ever really thought about making her own weapons. She didn't really use the Forge that much, it was best left to the people who wouldn't injure themselves in there.
Terra put another arrow onto the string and drew it back as Helena told her that repition was the key. It was always about repetition when it came to training with weapons. Terra was used to it by now. She released her arrow and, with another loud thwack it landed on the inner edge of the same ring her last arrow had landed in. It was still an improvement, even if only a slight one. "WellJust ignore me why don't you." she muttered quietly as the Apollo boy turned to Astoria. She wasn't really offended, she didn't like him much anyway.

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