Apprentice to Brillaince [Irvine/Ask to Join]

Everything had gone better than expected, since he had ended up on this strange planet. Firstly, there was that girl with the legs and the rack who he was living with... okay, so her dad was there too and he wasn’t so cool with having a roomie, but whatever. Alyssa was pretty cool, Irvine quite liked her but then there were a lot of girls on Gran Pulse to like. All the girls around here seemed to be half-naked compared to his world and you know what? That was absolutely okay with Irvine. He didn’t know how long he would be stuck around here, so he thought he might as well make the most of it. His second stroke of luck was that everybody on this strange planet actually spoke his language, although their writing was pretty different. Aside from noticing some small similarities between individual characters, Irvine couldn’t read anything around here. It made him feel a bit stupid, as if he were actually illiterate instead of just from a different world. This morning Alyssa had asked him to get a box of cereal from the cupboard and he had spend 10 minutes trying to figure out which was the one she was looking for, eventually busting into the boxes and looking inside before seeing that he had been looking at lentils. Irvine had never realised just how vital reading was outside of school before; he could only assume that he was so used to reading in the outside world that he just didn’t notice it anymore. Until now that he couldn’t.

Right now, for example, he had wandered out into Oerba and was looking at the shops; well, the few shops that were scattered amongst older, more ruined buildings. Irvine was quite impressed at how the people here were coping, since they were only civilians after all. Alyssa had explained quite a lot to him over the last couple of days, or at least as much as she could before Irvine felt like his brain was about to implode. He felt like he had the basics down anyway. The people lived in a crazy sky-moon controlled by giant robots; that was quite an opening sentence to explaining anybody’s culture. Anyway, the sky people were afraid of the ground people, there was a war, then a long time later there was another war and the result was the destruction of the sky-moon by some of its own robots. So now the sky people lived down here fairly happily on the land that they had once been so terrified of. It all sounded pretty strange to him, but there were probably weirder places out there somewhere. Maybe. If nothing else, Gran Pulse had to be one of the most technologically advanced places he could have imagined. He wished he could take some of this tech home with him when he went. Stealing one microchip here would probably make him a millionaire back home.

Irvine wandered into one of the shops at random and had a look at the items on sale. Some of them were fairly recognizable, like potions, but everything was subtly altered. The food was different too, although exactly what was in some of the boxes he could not tell. That damn Cocoon writing again. After browsing for a couple of minutes he walked towards the door without buying anything. In this strange world he was quite happy to just spend some time exploring before he felt the need to do anything useful like buying supplies or looking for a way to get home. Hopefully Alyssa might be able to help him out with the second thing, she was some sort of researcher after all.

As he approached the door, a jangle of coins hitting the floor made him turn back towards the counter. There were two people down on the floor picking up coins, one a boy with silvery hair and another a girl that was way too pretty to be working here. Irvine immediately felt the urge to go over to her with a line, but he held back for once. He was new here after all and since he didn’t know if his money was even the right currency, he’d probably just end up making a fool out of himself. He’d be back here though, that was a certainty. What a chest she had! It was like two basketballs in a shirt. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but not by much! Irvine smiled, no wonder the kid could barely keep his eyes off her. Not as innocent as he looks then, Irvine thought, amused. He could sympathize, at that age he had been obsessed with girls too - well, he was still obsessed with girls of course - but back then he had had no idea of how to talk to them at all. Irvine knew that he didn’t always hit the mark when he was trying to impress the ladies, but he was pretty popular back in Garden, so he had to be doing something right now and again.

A lone gil coin hit his boot, having rolled across the floor unnoticed from the boy and the older girl. Irvine stooped to pick it up, but the boy had already passed by before Irvine had the chance to even say hello. The kid was practically running out, red in the face with embarrassment, but actually the cashier seemed to have barely noticed his discomfort. Irvine followed him out, luckily the boy had already stopped, but Irvine wouldn’t have had too much bother catching him up anyway which his longer legs. “Hey kid, you dropped something,” he smiled, tossing the gil coin to the younger boy. Well that was another similarity between his world and this one then, the use of gil. At least he knew now that he would be able to actually buy things around here, which would be useful. Irvine couldn’t help but grin at the kid again, “You know, you didn’t do as badly in there as you think. The girl barely notice your lack of smooth moves. You just got to know the type, she comes under the ‘lovely, but dumb’ category. Good starting territory.”

The kid caught the gil easily and thanked him, obviously not expecting Irvine’s next statement. Irvine was quite cheerful, even though Hope seemed annoyed at first, so he offered a quick explanation, “Not that I was watching you or something weird like that. The noise when you dropped those coins was all that got my attention. After that my eyes were firmly on her assets until you went and got in my view.” He laughed. “Okay, maybe that doesn’t make me sound any better, but you know what I mean, she was pretty good-looking.” That at least Irvine knew they could agree on, he had seen the kid staring at her. Or trying incredibly hard not to stare - and failing. However Hope already seemed to have dismissed his annoyance, instead asking if Irvine really thought he had done okay around the woman. Irvine found his ...innocence? Naivety? Youth? Sincerity? Maybe that was it. Whatever it was, Irvine found it quite funny and found himself wanting to help the kid out. Maybe there was some way he could get the girl, although Irvine also didn’t want to give him false hope that would lead to him shot down. But if not that girl, Irvine was sure there were others. There was always another girl.

Irvine nodded encouragingly, “Oh yeah, she didn’t notice a thing. I probably noticed more from the other side of the shop. For girls like that you just have to be real nice and obvious for them. Not creepy though, there’s a line somewhere. You’re young enough not to have to worry about it, at least most of the time, they’ll just think you’re cute or something. I mean I’ve seen slicker moves in my time, don’t get me wrong, but you didn’t make a fool of yourself. Got to work on your staring though, be more discreet, you know?” he chuckled. Not that Irvine was the most discreet person in the world - frankly he was anything but most of the time - but then again he tended to have his hormones under control, just being a couple years older than Hope. Younger guys had their work cut out just dealing with their raging biological urges. Not that Irvine thought of it that way. As far as Irvine was concerned he was just incredibly suave.

“I know quite a lot about women,” Irvine shrugged, “About as much as you can know. Women are tricky, but they are my department. Women and guns,” he added, tapped his shotgun against his leg as if to emphasize the point. He might have left it at home if he was back on his own world and just going to look around some shops, but it was more or less safe there for the moment, now that Ultimecia was dead. That was not a certainty though, because Irvine almost always carried his shotgun, just for a sense of security if nothing else, and also because it was his job right there. Mostly he just loved his shotgun. But here on Pulse, there was not even a chance of him living his weapon behind, not when he had already seen first-hand how many wild and dangerous monsters there were, sometimes even ranging into the town. Really it was lucky that he had been so curious about that damn portal in the first place, even if it meant that he was sort of stuck here now. If he hadn’t come along at such an opportune time then Alyssa probably would’ve been toast. No wonder she was so attracted to him. Irvine might’ve made a move if not for the father. Plus, if things went badly he might be out of a place to live, and he wasn’t that stupid. Everything could wait until he knew if he was going home or not. “How old are you? Fifteen? You never know, maybe you could have a shot,” grinned Irvine, “With, like, the right lines.” Actually the kid probably wasn’t as old as fifteen, but Irvine was sure he was around that, and if he was younger then it was just a confidence boost. Most guys needed that at his age - Irvine, unsurprisingly, had not.

Irvine smiled at the kid getting kinda flustered just talking to him about looking at a pretty girl, never mind talking to the girl himself. Never mind the pervy tone that Irvine recognised all to clearly. Hope needed help. Not that Irvine was necessarily about to offer himself right then and there, but he was stuck on a foreign planet for an unspecified period of time and with not much to do. A project like this would be handy to keep him occupied. Then again, it would cut into his time spent in target practice and scouting for girls. Maybe he could think about helping Hope out just a little though. He seemed decent enough so far. He even apologized for getting in the way (sure, he was 'sorry') which Irvine just shrugged off, "No matter." At his rather detailed description of the girl, Hope seemed surprised - impressed? - although a definite scowl appeared at the idea of him being thought of as ‘cute’. “Don’t worry about it,” Irvine clarified, “You don’t have to act all... cute or whatever. It’s just about finding a way in, yano? It’s a good thing.” Maybe it was harsh to expect him to have anything else to offer at fifteen. Even at seventeen, Irvine had only really broadened out recently - although he had always been quite tall - and after all his training had given him some muscles, he was still more lean than built-up.

"Yeah, I am a mercenary... Of sorts." 'Definitely not military'... Was he so obvious then? Answer: yes. His very attitude was not one of someone that had the strictest obedience usually found in the military. Although, even though Garden was mercenary, it was like an army, an army for fighting the sorceress. Most of the SeeDs did have the seriousness of military men, more in some cases (Squall). Irvine was just in the minority. Then again, when it came to a real battle, Irvine could hold his own with the best of them. Even if he would prefer not to have to have the GFs along; fortunately that was not something he had to deal with anymore. First thing he had done when he had got back to Garden was deposit that damn thing back where he wouldn’t have to carry it around in his head anymore. No lost memories for him thanks.

Irvine was almost offended by the second half of the question, it was a long time now since anyone had thought to question his proficiency with his guns. "Hey, carrying around a weapon you don't know how to use is just a quick way to get yourself killed. And say I trick some girl into coming out by lying, then we get attacked by something and I make a fool of myself? She won't stick around after that." But then again, this was a different world. People didn't know about SeeD around here, so maybe questioning was natural. Irvine was prepared to show Hope that his shotgun was more than a prop, "Go on then, name your target," he grinned, "I'll prove it to you, you don't have to just take my word for it that I'm the best sharpshooter in Garden." Flipping his gun over in his hand (safety on, of course) Irvine did his routine 5-second check-up; check the mechanism, look down the sights, reload if necessary. "And make it something, like, at least halfway challenging please."

Irvine shrugged, "You're thinking lines like really cheesy stuff, you have to tailor it to the situation. Some guys think all you have to do is spout off this one magic line, exact same no matter what kind of girl, and suddenly you'll be cooking her breakfast the next morning. Doesn't work like that." Irvine had made that mistake in the past, and occasionally you got girls those old lines would actually work on, but in general it was a hopeless move.

"Of course it works! I mean not every single time, you have to account for personal taste and some of them have boyfriends they still like, but it's worked enough to know it's good material." Irvine shrugged, "I wouldn't be standing around here pretending to know what I was talking about if I was still, like, some little virgin." That probably wasn't the best phrase to use around a kid who almost certainly was - at least he acted like it - but it got to the point. Irvine had never been particularly concerned with the legitimate accusation that he could be blunt. He shrugged, “I can’t really prove anything, since I don’t have exactly have an ex-girlfriend to hand, but I’m not lying to you.”

Having always been friendly, Irvine didn’t really think much of talking to Hope as if he knew him, rather than just being a total stranger. Of course there wasn’t anything intimidating about Hope to him, he was younger and smaller than him after all, but he should perhaps have been surprised that Hope wasn’t walking away from his random chatter thinking him a complete weirdo. There was still time for that yet though, Irvine spouting off about his knowledge of women and shooting was probably enough to make a lot of people run away. Hope, however, just hit Irvine with a question of his own. Hmm, now that was actually a good question. Why had Irvine started using the gun? Well he had been in Garden obviously, he was expected to learn something. The gun just seemed... cooler. That wasn’t really a great answer, but hey, he had been a kid, what else was he supposed to base his decision on? Then he had totally fallen in love with guns and spent the next several years of his life obsessively practicing and mastering the weapon. Girls had never really come into it, it was only later that he realised that his role as a ‘lonely sharpshooter’ could be used to his advantage and had worked to use that advantage to the maximum amount possible. “I had to choose something and I thought guns were cool,” Irvine explained with a shrug, “I was like 12 or something. Didn’t have much else to go off of.” If he had disliked guns Irvine had no idea what he would have done. He wasn’t much of a physical fighter, he hadn’t done any hand-to-hand combat since he passed basic combat when he was fourteen. Maybe the gunblade, but that was a really hard option; only Squall and Seifer would be typically stubborn enough to go with that option. So guns were really the only thing Irvine could think of he would even want to learn. Selphie’s nunchaku were pretty awesome. But then that was probably more to do with the wielder than the weapon.

Weighing up the proposal for a second, Irvine shrugged, “Sure, why not?” A shooting range sounded like a better idea than deciding to start firing in the middle of the street. That tended to attract... what were they called here again?... Guardian Corps, that was it. Not to mention there were people walking around. Not that Irvine was going to hit them or anything, he was better than that, but they would almost certainly panic if a strange man started shooting for no reason. He could hardly blame them for that. The walk gave him opportunity to explain the importance of lines to Hope, who seemed to swing between cringing at his harsher comments, doubting his boasts and soaking up his information like a sponge. Irvine didn’t really mind that so much. They had only just met after all. He’d be a foolish guy if he just accepted everything at face value before he even had a little bit of proof. On the other hand, it would be very strange of Irvine to be carrying around a shotgun if he didn’t know how to use it.

Irvine surveyed the range, a smile blossoming on his face, “Hey, this place isn’t too bad at all!” Sure, it was no Garden, but it was far better than anything Irvine had seen on this planet so far. He tracked the bullet marks across the range; whoever used this place was no sharpshooter, that was for sure. It was more like they were going crazy with a machine gun. There was no saying that an all-out assault was never the answer of course, but Irvine felt it showed a lack of finesse. If a man was that careless with his shooting then he was probably careless in other ways too. God help his girlfriend. Irvine could vary between the two; a sniper rifle for real precision work and a semi-automatic that he had only found occasion to use once or twice. Generally he worked with his shotgun for maximum accuracy while maintaining a steady fire rate. On Gran Pulse it was the only weapon that he had anyway. He stepped up to the rail, a few feet along from where Hope was standing. The target he pointed to would be challenging to a lesser gunman, to Irvine it was a fairly routine distance - although he didn’t have the benefit of a proper rifle to help him out. But as much as Irvine might boast, he definitely had the skills to back it up. Flicking the switch off of his gun, he gave Hope a grin, “No problem.” Swinging the gun up to his eye level, his hands assumed their familiar steady steel grip and he aimed and pulled the trigger. A quick shot, no more than three seconds to complete the full motion, but his aim was spot-on as usual. Irvine was relieved. He had been practicing on random targets when he could, but he was worried being away from his regular training might have blunted his aim. Obviously not.

Lowering his gun back towards the ground, he flicked the safety switch back on again. Safety first and all. With that usual confident smile, Irvine looked back at Hope, “Questions?” He laughed, “Or how about we just try find a way for you to get that girl? Or a different one. I’m bored anyway.” He was full of the light elation he felt whenever his bullet found a perfect mark like that, so he was well in the mood to be generous to Hope. He kind of liked the kid, a strange mix of skeptical and hopeful, and as he said... well, he didn’t have much better to do on this planet. May as well do something helpful for someone. He would try help Alyssa if he could, since she was the one giving him somewhere to live, but he didn’t know a thing about the computers and programming she worked with. Irvine knew how to aim and shoot. She didn’t require so much of that. Hope he might actually be able to work with.

"Well generally the people teaching kids to fight don't advertise to the public." Twelve was a pretty young age to start shooting things, but then SeeDs tended to be pretty young. Irvine had never thought that much of it really; it was all part of the training, it wasn't as if he was just presented with a rifle one day and set loose with it. He had had to work up just like everybody else, but his natural proficiency with the weapon saw him held in good esteem even when he was still quite young. It was probably just as well, since Irvine had little interest in other weapons and methods of fighting, except to know what might be used against him. And it wasn’t difficult either. I mean, it was comparative to the usual teen day-to-day experience of lying around watching television or whatever, maybe getting up for the odd game of football with friends, but if you were used to training then you got into the routine fairly easily. And the fitter you became, the easier it became. So for the underclassmen in Garden, it had never seemed like too much hassle. You got fed well, plenty of sleep, and there was no reason not to try your best. The tutors knew your ability, they weren’t gearing up for a war and throwing unqualified people into battles they couldn’t handle. Only the best fought against the best.

"I'm from Galbadia Garden," he explained a little further, "You've probably never heard of it." It seemed as well to go with the truth, even if it wasn't the entire story, it answered the question at least. Irvine didn't expect anybody to believe him if he told them outright he was from another world, maybe being with Riley made it more convincing, but he was still shocked that Alyssa had believed him in the first place. He knew it would probably come up eventually, probably when something really basic came up that he should know but he didn't. Alyssa had given him a crash course in Cocoon history, but he wasn't sure how much it would help. Mostly because he had forgotten half of it already. He held out his hand, "Irvine. And you are...?" He was surprised he hadn't actually asked the young man his name yet, that probably should have been his first move. Didn't really matter now. Probably he hadn't bothered earlier because he was just giving some advice, not planning to get to know the kid. “And thanks. Do you fight? Well, you know, train to fight anyway.” The kid had a look about him, Irvine recognized it, it was the difference between underclassmen in garden and the kids you met out in the real world. There was a leanness to the first group, the look that they had been running about most of the day, whereas a lot of kids were weaker and generally either more chubby or more skinny. Kids who were used to training were just... tougher.

"No? Well that's okay. Do you have anyone in mind? You name her and I'll see what I can do, right?" Irvine grinned. Hopefully the kid wasn't going to be too unrealistic about this. I mean you could get lucky and wear someone down, but if he was going to name a twenty year old with supermodel looks then they were probably screwed. And not in the good way. He just shrugged at Hope's question, "Not much point if you don't want her, is there? I guess it's practice. But not today, you'll come off as desperate if you go rushing back." He thought about it for a moment, "You could always just try it next time you go in. You don't have to ask her out on a date, but I like to be on good terms with as many women as possible. Because you never know, maybe one day they throw on a nice dress and you realise they are very much your type of woman after all," he added with a laugh. Did Irvine have a type of woman anyway? Available was most likely his type. And that was negotiable.

Irvine could tell Hope hadn't really taken his last statement very well, "Maybe I should explain slightly. I was raised in an orphanage and went to what you'd call a military school. But you had to get chosen and it was mostly through these orphanages... But they are more like schools than anything. They didn't treat us badly." Maybe that sounded almost as if he was protesting too much. Oh well, he had give Hope more information than he necessarily had to, he wasn't going into it any further. The kid could deal or bail, his choice. It was not very easy to describe the concept of Garden to someone who had never heard of them before, not without them coming off as some weird military school to dump orphans. In the end, you probably could look at them that way if you really wanted to, but Irvine knew all about Garden and its aims had always been honourable. Plus he really thought it was a decent place to grow up; he had always enjoyed it anyway.

Irvine was figuring now that he probably should have just lied and said he had come from Eden or whatever that city had been called. But then that probably would have been just as easily found out, probably the minute Hope asked a single question. He really should have listened more closely to Alyssa's summary of Cocoon, but how could he have known he's be striking up a conversation with a local today? Now what had Hope just asked? What kind of garden? Irvine didn't really know any kinds of garden in the way Hope meant it, so he went with the most obvious answer, "A flying one?" Maybe Hope would think Irvine was joking about that, it would probably be easier if it did. Then again, things rarely seemed to work out the easy way for Irvine. Hence him being here. "Garden is just the name of the school I guess, I never thought about it that much. Maybe it's a pun because the Cadets are called SeeDs. I can't really remember." This had probably all been covered in some history lecture when Irvine was asleep. He didn't hate all school subjects necessarily, but history wasn't exactly one of his favourites. He preferred maths; and that was far, far behind shooting things and training in his list of favourite pastimes at school. Pursuing female students still topped that list.

Irvine shook Hope's hand when he extended it. Hope's apparent reservations didn't really bother Irvine at all, he suspected he'd come around soon enough. Hope was the younger one after all, it was fairly understandable that he might be a bit suspicious of the bigger, older boy with his claims of knowing women and total lack of knowledge about his supposed homeland. I don't think I'd even trust myself right now, Irvine joked in his head. No matter. Hopefully they could just get through this without the matter of Irvine being from another planet coming up, although even Irvine admitted it was quite a long shot. But hey, from what he had heard about the demise of Cocoon, loads of people were mixed up these days down on Pulse. It shouldn’t be that hard to just pass himself off as just being from the other side of Cocoon, maybe somewhere in the country where he didn’t hear a lot of stuff... Okay, it was still going to be tricky. Irvine was probably going to fuck things up. He felt a bit like a kid who had just been caught out on not having done their homework; and boy did he know that feeling.

Oh crap, this kid was a l'cie, or had been one at least. Okay, Alyssa had mentioned this, it was very important apparently. For a wild moment Irvine almost exclaimed, ‘Holy shit, you're a robot?’ but he managed to stop himself from making such a stupid and telling mistake. That was a fal'cie. L'cie were humans with powers, right? And they were made by... He forgot. But that other stuff didn't really matter, the point was they had powers! Irvine could remember that bit easily enough because it sounded awesome being able to cast spells without having to draw them from enemies first. Although there were consequences. "Don't l'cie turn to crystal?" he questioned Hope, looking at him a little closer as if he might be made of crystal somehow under his pale skin. "And do you still have powers? Because that'd be awesome." Not to mention it would probably help them out a lot. Who was going to care that Hope was fifteen and short if he could light shit on fire? Irvine was pretty sure he might still be missing something important about this whole l’cie thing, but he couldn't remember it right now. Something to do with Cocoon... Ah, if it came back to him then he could ask then. His lack of shock and surprise was probably enough of a give away, although maybe his slight panic at trying to remember what a l’cie was would pass as an adequate reaction to that news.

"Well how much older are you talking? Like seventeen? Eighteen?" Irvine was not entirely sure he could help convince a eighteen year old girl that a fourteen year old boy was the perfect partner for her, even if Hope was about to turn fifteen or whatever. What they needed right now was a nice girl between about fourteen and sixteen years old, that would be perfect. Hope explained that his friends were all spread out now - well that made sense with this whole end-of-the-world thing they seemed to be having around here - and that he was ‘stuck.’ Hard up more like it. Irvine just shook his head, “You just need to look at everything in a new light! You aren’t stuck, you’re ‘available’. And guess what, there’s a lot of available and attractive women out there too. You just need to give it a try! Maybe a few lessons with the master and a bit of practice and it’s all gonna be great. Trust me!”

"That's cool," Irvine shrugged, again not really getting the whole significance of being a l'cie and being a crystal. He just wondered what it would be like to be a crystal. If he was lucky he would never have to find out. When Irvine asked about his old, l'cie powers Hope produced a real good fire spell, no problem. Maybe they'd get lucky and find some girl being threatened by a monster and have Hope put a fireball up its ass. That was instant win right there. Irvine grinned, "Hey, nice one! I still have to draw magic when I want to use it, that's dull as hell. Gets the job done though I guess. I hope I can still draw magic from the animals on this planet." For a moment his easy-going expression remained on his face, then it froze as he realise how stupid he'd been in saying that last sentence. On this planet... Maybe Hope hadn't noticed? Although it was Irvine's reaction that was as obvious as what he had actually said. Please could Hope just think he meant 'this planet' as opposed to Cocoon... Hopefully he would. After all if there were already two worlds here, why would he have to assume that it was another one Irvine was talking about? Well this secret was going well so far; first sustained conversation he had had with an outsider and he must have said the wrong thing about fifteen times already. He wondered if Riley was going to get on any better than this - probably she would be.

Twenty-one, that seemed a bit old maybe. The next two just about made Irvine's eyes bulge out his head though. "Five hundred and..." Yes, this was out of his league. "For serious?" The young guy didn't seem like he was making it up for anything and the crystal thing seemed valid enough... sort of. Maybe there was an advantage to this somehow... I mean, if you're technically five hundred years old, wouldn't everyone seem young? So what difference would a couple years less in Hope's case make... ah okay, it was kind of a long shot. "How about we work our way up to them?" Irvine suggested as sort of an optimistic compromise, "We'll start you out on someone your own age or something. Kind of like training wheels until you're confident enough for the real prizes," he grinned.

"Awesome. I'll have to think about this stuff, have like, a list of things or something," laughed Irvine, "Like a real teacher? I dunno, we'll work something out." Maybe Riley could help him, she was a girl, but then it might not be a good idea to reveal to much about this sort of thing. What if he really needed to impress her and she already knew all his moves? That wouldn't end well for him, and she was way too hot to be making mistakes with. Speaking of Riley, or actually, thinking about her; maybe this would be a good time to go see her. Most likely it was because he had been talking to Hope about girls or whatever, but now he was totally in the mood to go find Riley and push the limits of how suggestive he could be before she threw him in a headlock or something. Of course he wasn't going to dash out on Hope mid-conversation on a whim, but then Irvine did not do all his thinking with his brain. They had covered the main points anyway, Hope wanted to get a girl - or five - and Irvine was going to try make that happen by imparting his wisdom on the subject. Like he had just said, he needed to think about this stuff before he could really go teaching it. "If you give me your cell number then I could give you a call when I ...schedule our first lesson?" That made him smile, this was probably going to be quite funny even if Irvine was just as serious (or more serious even) than Hope was. Other than that there was little more to be done here. Although he would definitely make a note of where this place was before going back to Alyssa’s house; it would be great to come back here for some real target practice. Riley might keep his skills with women sharp, but he had to keep his aim in too.