Weapons Training

It's been a difficult couple of weeks.  The upcoming chapter of Viewer 2-5-8 might not be up on time.  I didn't get it to loss4words in a timely manner.  As it turns out, I also forgot to post information on weapons training.  Please enjoy the following.  I'll have a new chapter up as soon as I can.

This first video is the FBI pistol qualifications course:

Here are a couple of videos on the SAS which I found helpful:

I did a lot of additional research on Close Quarters Battle or CQB that I'm not including in this post. 
There's actually a sport shooting club called IPSC, which conducts some interesting target shooting competitions.  My brother's been involved in a couple of these.  It's kind of what I imagine that Bella did with Charlie and his friends. 
(It's late at night and I haven't edited this so please pardon any errors.)

The Farm

 Alright, so in chapter 33 we finally get Bella off to The Farm.  In the initial planning phases of V258 dorothysrubyslippers shared the following series of videos with me.  They were made by Lindsey Moran, author of Blowing My Cover.  She's a former CIA officer.

My version of The Farm probably doesn't fit exactly.  I've taken liberties with the story.  Anyway - enjoy!

The Mind Of A CIA Spy : What types of mental training exercises do CIA officers receive? - Video Dailymotion

Viewer 2-5-8: Guns

I know that some of you may have issues with guns.  I'm a firm advocate of owning and using guns for sport and protection (mostly sport).  There are safety rules that you must learn when handling them.  The more you know about a weapon the less likely you are to accidentally injure yourself or someone else with one.

The Rules:
1. Never point a weapon - loaded or unloaded - at anyone or anything you are unwilling to kill.

I'm serious about this.  It drives me crazy when people on TV, in real life, and in fiction wield them around like it's no big deal.  Never point a weapon, loaded or unloaded at someone or something that you don't want dead - seriously. 

This is me at the range in my spiffy trench coat.

I've read at least one fic where Bella's a crack-shot and shoots a target in the wrist, then goes off on this whole thing about disarming an attacker.  Um... no... If you shoot someone in the wrist he's going to keep coming.  If you're firing on someone you'd better be willing to kill him/her and that is the end of the story.  Also, realistically if 250lbs of angry man is bearing down on you with a weapon, you don't risk missing his wrist or a kneecap.  If you can't stomach it, you shouldn't have a weapon, because you're going to end up disarmed.

2. Always assume weapons are loaded.

I don't care if you've pulled the clip, checked the chamber, and put the safety back on - treat it like it's loaded.  Why? Because what you do becomes a habit.  If you're in the habit of pointing that baby around haphazardly you're more likely to do it some other time.  Just don't. Has anyone noticed all of the politicians lately holding up guns on TV.  Almost every single one of them has been irresponsible about it.

3. When passing off any sort of weapon (knives included) you wait for the other person to say "Thank you" before releasing the weapon.  This ensures that dangerous items are not dropped.

Just do it.  Honestly, if I'm handing you a weapon I'm going to do this and I'm not letting go until you say it.

4. Do not look down the barrel of a gun for any reason.  If you feel that your weapon has misfired and there might be a bullet lodged in the barrel, use a pen light, not your face, to test this theory.

This should really be obvious, but you'd be amazed at the stupidity.

5. Don't pull a weapon on someone unless you're really in danger.  Guns are not for arguments.

6. Lock your weapons in a secure location.  We have a lockbox for our hand guns that responds to a typed combination.  Our larger weapons have trigger locks.

7. If you are using a weapon for home defense your lock box needs to be in an accessible place out of the reach of children and hidden from idiots. 

8. Hit the range regularly.

A gun is totally useless and quite dangerous if you don't know what you're doing with it.  

I'm really not a wacko, I promise.  I'm a normal mom.  If you're not going to be smart and responsible about gun ownership, you have no business having one.  Also, if you have one, you need to talk to your kids about it and teach them gun safety.  My son has a BB gun - which stays in our room locked up - and we made him earn it through consistent, responsible behavior.  Trust me, that took a while, but he's very responsible with the BB gun now.  He had to earn it, so it means more.

Like I said, I know that a lot of people have issues with firearms these days.  They don't have to be scary, you just have to be mindful about your behavior with them, and for goodness sakes lock them up.

Baby Beretta - notice how there's not much of a lip between the handle and the slide.  I'm pretty sure this is why we call it Beretta Bite

Smith and Wesson 38 Special

Desert Eagle - this is a big gun

Glock 17

Viewer 2-5-8 Musical Storyboard

A completely unshared fact about V258 is that it's story boarded with music.  Some people use outlines or pictures, I'm usually an outline girl, but not with V258.  I don't share the songs with particular chapters because there's not a song for each one, and some songs bleed over from one chapter to the next.

Sooo... I give you an incomplete YouTube playlist of the V258 storyboard in no particular order:




I'm sorry if you're unable to view this in your area.  I tried a few different ways of making this playlist but oddly youtube was the only place I could find some of these songs.

Viewer 2-5-8 ch28 recap

For those who have been following Viewer 2-5-8 and are now in need of a recap before we get into the next chapter, here's where we are:

Bella and Edward had a very serious relationship from 2007 - 2008 when Bella was in college and Edward was a Major in the Army.  Edward was going to propose to Bella on February 5th of 2008.  Unfortunately fate stepped in in the form of Alice getting lost in Afghanistan.  We're still a bit sketchy on the details regarding Alice's disappearance as Alice herself isn't exactly sure of what happened.  She was on a team doing some contract work in the country when they seem to have turned on her.  Carlisle convinced Edward to join SpecInt, the family business.  Edward left Bella without so much as a phone call.  Bella was devestated.

Two years later, work-a-holic Bella has made a name for herself in the radio news business and is at the top of her game when an accident leaves her with a special ability.  Bella is now a remote viewer.  She can mentally jump through space and time.  Unfortunately, she's also in pretty bad shape, because her out of body experiences are completely uncontrollable. 

Alice, unbeknownst to just about everyone else orchestrates a plan to bring Bella into SpecInt in order to bring her back into their lives.  This doesn't work out quite the way Alice planned.  Bella is not happy with anyone involved, and doesn't trust anyone at SpecInt.  This is exacerbated by the fact that SpecInt's current RV trainer is Edward.

Edward and Bella are still attracted to each other but neither wants to say anything about it.  Edward thinks that Bella is engaged to Jake, and Bella is certain that Edward isn't attracted to her.  Neither of them is willing to put themselves out there again.

Side note - during the two years in which Bella and Edward weren't together, she was at one point engaged to Jake.  Edward spied on her.  Edward also dated his previous trainee, Tanya.  Tanya has gone off the reservation with some very important data that SpecInt would like back.  They also want to bring her in on principle.  Tanya is currently spying on at least one of SpecInt's teams, and we don't know why.  We have reason to believe that she knows about Bella.

Bella has renewed her relationship with Esme and Carlisle has taken her in now that he knows who she is in relation to Edward.

As soon as Carlisle and Edward approve it, Bella will be heading to training at The Farm with the CIA.

News for the week of 7/19

News:

Ch7 of The Search is at Beta, and I'm about halfway through the next chapter of BC.

Doc / Manuel the Wonder Llama is working on a Civil War Jasper fic titled, The Home Guard. Doc's expertise is in Civil War history so this should be a good slice of fiction meets history. If his story goes well then he and I will consider doing a story with Maria and Jasper focusing on the southern vampire wars.

I'm also working on a fic that I'll be putting out this fall and winter. It's Science Fiction meets angst. Dorothy's Ruby Slippers is beta'ing the story. Here's a snippet of the Prologue and the two POV's in Ch 1:

EPOV

Watching her like this was painful. I turned away from the two-way mirror and looked at Alice, my sister. She gave me a weak smile.

“I take it you saw this coming?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“This isn’t going to go well. I think she’d rather die than have me train her.”

Alice winced, and I knew that it was true.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Jasper piped up from behind his wife.

“Jazz, I’d be willing to bet fifty dollars that those are her exact words when she finds out.” I turned back to the glass and fought the urge to go to her. I had to be professional. She was a trainee, and to make matters worse, she was with Jacob now. That was partially my own doing, and I had to live with that.

BPOV

A tremor shook the building. Jacob started to fall from his precariously balanced position next to me and I reached to push him back into his chair. I shoved a little too hard and pushed him through to the other side of the chair. He crashed to the floor. His finger was still depressed on the shutter of the camera and it flashed continuously.

The light gave the room an ominous feel … like a horror film. I expected someone with a chainsaw to turn up at any second. I scanned the room quickly as the tremors stopped and then looked down at Jacob. His face relaxed for a second but the camera continued to flash. Then, his eyes went wide. He was shouting something that I couldn’t quite make out.

There was only pain.

I was on the floor with something on my head, and I could smell blood.

JPOV

“Bella!” I shouted down the small entry hall. I heard soft voices and walked to the den. She’d turned on Food Network, most likely to avoid temptation. If she sat up and watched the news, then she’d want to be out there. I was the same way, except for the fact that I actually took days off and occasionally went on vacation; she didn’t.

I turned off the TV and knelt by her side. She hadn’t even bothered to change. Sleeping in her camisole and a skirt couldn’t be comfortable. She still looked like she’d been run through the ringer. Her face was bandaged with large gauze pads that had Betadine peeking out from under them. Her left wrist was in a splint resting across her chest. I could see the beginnings of bruises up and down her arms. This was the worst she’d had it in a while.

“Bells?” I touched her shoulder. She felt a bit cold. “Bells, honey, it’s time to wake up.” I gently shook her.

No reaction.

The Search

Chapter 6 has been sent to beta. Phew! Sorry this took so long. Now, I'm going to get working on the Ch 5 bonus.