vatheon | 3rd - I may be a fool, but I intend to be a live fool.

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3rd - I may be a fool, but I intend to be a live fool.

Who: Matrim Cauthon and you!
Where: Inside the Nostalgia Nook
When: Morning to Afternoon
Style: [Action!]
Status: Open~!

[Today, Mat's decided to look through all the selections of longbows, and if what he's muttering is any clue, he isn't finding what he's looking for. Only really seeing all the bows on his right doesn't help any.]

Blood and ashes...Too short. And that one feels about to crack... [He reaches for a couple more, lifting them individually before putting them back with a grumble, leaning on his ashandarei a bit.]

Too light. And that one was too heavy. [He turns left to better see the selection, lifting another possible choice before putting it back with a sigh.]

This one's too tall. And all of these probably wouldn't have enough flaming range. [Bother him?]

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Right.

[......Shut up, she knew that.

Just as she turned to face him, in fact, she sees him leaning on the spear, and it does seem like he's pretty comfortable with it. It even looks like something Ken would've used...

Ah, but his eye. The constant looking to the left.

That's...actually a little more interesting. Unfortunately, perfect vision is something she takes for granted.]

...Er, something bothering you?

[She looks in the same direction he is, thinking maybe he's spotted something. Or maybe someone's following them.

...Not that she can even begin to imagine how she could miss something like that, but a closer look at his face reveals that she can miss a lot of things, even with perfect vision. Her expression changes from neutral to just a bit surprised.

Maybe she shouldn't have asked.]

[Even the most observant people miss things at times. He blinks at her.]

Nothing's bothering me. [He just. Can't see that side.

Oh. So she really hadn't noticed at all? He chuckles, tugging down on the edge of his hat to shade that socket some more.]

Losing it was bloody worth it. And it doesn't hurt so much anymore. [So don't act like it's a terrible thing or like he's at a serious disadvantage.]

[Mmm. She averts her eyes when he tugs down his hat, taking the hint that she shouldn't be staring. She's also a bit surprised herself, that it took her a while to notice--

But she supposes that says more about his ability to hide it than anything else.]

Sounds like you're used to it by now.

[Having only one eye.

She can't even imagine what that's like.]

[He'd acted like this immediately after losing it, so why would he change now that it doesn't throb? He hunches down, shrugs, and scratches the back of his neck.]

Didn't have a bloody choice. [He could either have gotten used to it and run, or not and died.]

Sorry.

[He sounds a bit bitter about it, honestly, despite having adjusted-- so she'll offer a quick apology for bringing it up. It's not much her business anyway, so.

Heh.

She'll just. Quietly lead him past the pharmacy area, towards the back. The walls are lined with all sorts of bows, guns, spears, which you might even be able to see from a distance.]

I'm...glad it doesn't hurt.

[Not as bad as it looks...]

[He's just a bit bitter he was pulled here when he had things to do back home. Like getting Moiraine away from that island and preparing for the Last Battle. And getting back to the Band.

He's a bit shocked at how she's taking it though. Why does she feel the need to apologize? He'd expected it to come up at some point. And they've just met, why does it really matter to her that it doesn't hurt?

So he laughs, though it seems a bit forced.]

So am I. [Getting it dunked in salt water was not fun.

But now he's going to look at those weapons. The first thing he picks up is a gun, turning it over.]

What's this? [And can he take it apart....He keeps examining it to figure out the best way to do that.]

[Well, he isn't the only one who can force a smile, at least. A bit of a laugh... and she'll just turn to look at him again, when he asks the question. It's less jarring now that she knows what to expect, seeing that side of his face.]

Oh-- it's a gun.

[A regular one, actually. The kind officers like Kurosawa used back at home. She thinks maybe he'd found an Evoker at first, but--

You'd probably have to ask specifically for those.

Not that she knows why your average person would need one.]

I doubt it's loaded, but be careful.

[Not that she's one to talk, since she's never used one before either. But still, at least she knows what it is...]

[He's taken apart a Nightflower (firework) next to a fire. He's totally careful. Yep.

So he keeps examining it.]

A gun?

[He's never heard of it before... He stops looking down the barrel to look back at her.]

Loaded?

...Well, yeah.

[Yukari seems a little surprised at his reaction. But she answers honestly with a shrug.]

Loaded with small metal bullets. The gun's used to fire them. See the trigger?

[She'll point it out to him.]

[OH! This gun thing is sounding like a tiny Dragon now. Just with a trigger instead of a fuse. Those bullets sound like dragon's eggs...]

Does this have the powder used for Nightflowers inside? [She probably doesn't know what Nightflowers are, but she might be able to figure it out. She seems bright. He'll just explain if she asks.]

[She is pretty bright, though when he says "Nightflower," she really does picture a literal flower. Maybe in his world, they can fire something like bullets but...

Otherwise she's not exactly sure. She'll refrain from making assumptions.]

Well, I'm not exactly sure what a Nightflower is-- but it does use gunpowder, yeah.

[Maybe it's close to the same thing...? :|a]

It'll leave residue when you shoot.

[So he does need to explain. okay then.]

It explodes and makes lights in the night sky. Sometimes they make them look like flowers.

[He nods at the gun powder thing though. He might not know what it's called, but it does explode so it could be the same thing. Just from different worlds.

He turns to look at her again.]

A gun sounds like a small Dragon - they get a powder like the stuff used in a Nightflower and hurl large projectiles about a mile's length away when you light it. And it did leave black stuff behind.

Oh, I see.

[Lights in the sky definitely sounds like fireworks to her. It's really interesting to hear about this from the perspective of a different world, even if she doesn't know that much about it.

...Fascinating.]

I've never thought of a gun as a dragon before. Where I come from, they don't even exist.

[Well, there are Shadows that are dragon-like but not everyone knows about those, so yeah...

Anyway, they're talking about two different "dragons" besides.]

[He lifts the gun in confusion at that.]

Weren't there bigger things than this at first? Ones that kinda look like a long bell but aren't thick enough?

[He doubts her world calls them Dragons, but if they have guns, they probably had something like the Dragons earlier.]

I didn't mean those scaly creatures out of legend. Those don't exist where I'm from either. [Though Rand is the Dragon Reborn and has two dragon tattoos on his arms, though one is missing it's head ever since that hand got blown off.

Let's not think about that anymore. At least he hadn't gotten a vision of Rand when he thought of him. Did the colors even work here?]

[Right, haha, of course he didn't mean them...

She knew that. Heh, she kind of lets out an awkward chuckle, but... it doesn't last long. Just until she can think of an answer to his question.]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there were bigger models. Though I admit, I'm no expert on how guns have evolved.

[She's thinking of stuff like cannons from her history lessons, but it's all pretty fuzzy.]

Normally you'd have to have a license to carry them, but I guess things are a little different here.

[Hey, at least the biggest reason she knows her history isn't because she was given memories of the people who were alive then. Makes it a bit confusing.

He nods.]

One of those bigger models might be close to what Dragons are. We only made them recently. [As in, they've only been around in more than plans for less than the past month for him.

A license to carry a weapon? It makes since if...]

The license is so people know you know how to use it, right?

[Hmm...

Maybe his world isn't quite as technologically advanced then. Japan is pretty crazy about that stuff, but-- well, it doesn't really matter now. She nods.]

Exactly. There's a proficiency exam you have to pass, I think, but I'm not exactly sure how hard it is or anything.

[He didn't want to use the SFC for a while because he thought it was made by magic. ~~A couple thousand years ago they had hover cars though.~~

He chuckles.]

Hard enough to make sure you know how to not hurt yourself on accident and can take care of it, most likely. Like what people should do with swords so woolbrained idiots don't cut themselves.

[He puts the gun back, turning toward the polearms, which he just gives a glance to see how well maintained they are. Maybe he should see if Johnny's academy has a gun trainer... It wouldn't do to shoot himself in the foot while trying to see how it works.

Now to look at the bows!]

Yeah.

[She has to laugh a little at that. She kind of likes this guy's attitude, but of course, it's only because she definitely doesn't consider herself to be a wool-brained idiot.

She'll just watch him and follow him when he looks towards the bows instead, grateful that they're venturing a little more into her comfort zone.]

My name's Yukari, by the way...what's yours?

I'm Mat.

[He tips his hat to her a little, a small smile on his face. She doesn't seem like one to Mat, unlike some people here.

Hopefully he isn't proven wrong about that, like he has been before.

Now about those bows...They don't really look like ones he's seen before, not all of them.]

Why are some of these folded up? [Yep, he's never seen a compound bow before.]

[She'll file his name away for future reference, then. It's foreign, but it'll at least be kind of easy to remember, so... that's something.

And when she notices him looking at the compound bows, she picks one up.]

Probably to make it easier to hide and carry around. They're a little fancier than most.

[Not all of them can fold, obviously.]

[If he'd told her his full name, likely it would have been even easier to remember. Mat's more common than Matrim is.

Yukari's name won't be all that hard to remember either.

He tilts his head a little, adjusting his hat.]

So you can hide it on you? The bows I grew up with [What he can remember of them] were taller than the person who uses them. You could always tell when someone was carrying one.

[These compound bows seem like they wouldn't have the same amount of power as a Two Rivers bow, but then most bows don't.

He looks at the ones who aren't folded. Those don't look all that promising either...]

[...Ahahaha.

Well, Yukari's pretty strong. But even she can't imagine carrying something taller than herself while running through a place like Tartarus, or the Abyss of time. Granted bows are fairly light, but...still.]

I guess they've gotten smaller over the years. We're all about convenience, where I'm from.

[Always looking for ways to make things smaller, better. More work done for less effort.

It's the same way laptops keep getting smaller and lighter. Cell phones, too. But she doubts he knows what those are...]

Probably. Seems to me that'd make them a bit less powerful or would make their range shorter. I'm not sure; I'd need to find one that works for me or my friends and get or make a bow like the ones from our world that works for the same one of us.

[Don't mind him half talking to himself, thinking it out loud. Most of these don't seem to be longbows...]

Hey, how do you find out if these bows are in your level? It's still by the strength it takes to draw the string back to your ear, right?

[The Two Rivers longbows have less slack in the string than other bows in the Westlands, so he might have an easier time than she'd expect from how he looks drawing back the string.]

[There are drawbacks and perks to any weapon, so Yukari doesn't see how that's anything worth noting... it is a matter of preference, though, so yeah. She can't really argue against it. At the very least, she certainly isn't going to make him use anything he doesn't want to.

So she just nods to acknowledge the fact, and she'll respond to his question.]

That sounds about right, yeah. Go ahead and give it a try.

[A glance at the local behind the counter reveals that he doesn't seem to mind at all. Yukari's going to try out this compound bow herself, so Mat is free to do the same if he so wishes.

Even without arrows, they can at least get a feel for how difficult it is to use.]

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