Accuracy or Precision?

[Ibram Kendi Rare]

Life as a demigod, it turns out, is quite dangerous.

Getting bullied and then showing them up might be considered an outlier for many, but who knew that the next time he met them they were accompanied by those odd looking tall men with hundreds of dollars worth of tattoos in their arms. He was convinced, with the clubs they were holding, that they were part of some motorcycle that was bought by Winters just to beat him up. Instead, they were monsters from Greek mythology - a fact that took him some time to process in the hospital. It also left him with one glaring problem, as illustrated by his very pleasant arrival at camp, his severe lack of any survival or combat skills. Sure, he enrolled himself in MMA classes, but it was only for a few months when the other campers probably had years of training. Nowadays, he gets most, if not all, of his training from the instruction here.

One trip to the camp's armory showed that he was likely going to have similar luck with other weapons, turns out handling sharp and lethal objects is actually quite dangerous without experience, who could have guessed? That was the last time he wielded a letter opener, thinking he was cool to do so after learning a few moves. Though out of all the weapons, the one he felt not totally out of his league with was the bow. The spear was the first weapon he trained with and the bow was second, thinking it was smart of him to have a bit of close and long-distance muscle memory. With every weapon, he had a gut feeling that he might do reasonably well with them -- until he began using it. So far, spears and bows are his forte. 

It was decided then, after picking up a recurve bow that seemed suitable for him with the help of the good soul who’d agreed to take him there, he headed for the archery range.

He knew from him experience of learning a multitude of other very unrelated skills that he shouldn’t be discouraged by failures in his first few attempts and should keep his head held high, so with a firm nod of his head and a bright smile, he continued, eventually succeeding in getting the arrow to land in the general vicinity of the target, which he counted as a success! For now, at least, he’ll take not nearly shooting him in the foot as a small victory, so he sat down, drank some water, pondered the seeming futility of his efforts so far, and went back to practicing. He was diligent, if literally nothing else, that’s how he’d picked up most of his non-school related skills. Nevertheless, he decided to persevere with his efforts till he finally managed to hit the target at least ten times in a row, today if possible.

May the gods have mercy upon him and anyone in his general vicinity. @ Alyssa James

Edited April 7, 2023 by Ibram Kendi

[Alyssa James]

Alyssa had nothing better to do that day, so she decided to get a bit of extra archery practice in. Truth be told, she was contemplating whether or not she wanted to join the hunters of Artemis. All the girls her age were finding themselves falling in love and she wasn't sure that was something that interested her. She was a very go with the flow individual, and believed that if she was meant to find love it would happen in its own time. So she wasn't chasing it down the way her friends all seemed to. Unfortunately, that meant that she had a lot of free time when they decided that they were going to sit and gossip about their various crushes and who was dating who. Aly had no interest in that kind of gossip and was most content when she could actively do something. Whether that was reading, crafting, or trying to stay in shape.

She had just excused herself from one such conversation and grabbed a bow from the armory to head out for some practice. As she arrived she saw that she wasn't alone. Standing there was one of the campers that she had seen around, but hadn't really gotten to know. All she really knew about the boy was that he was from the Nemesis cabin. He seemed focused, so Aly just stood there waiting for him to be done with his shots so she didn't disturb him. Or worse, startle him.

[Ibram Kendi Rare]

Ibram was not as good as the children of Apollo, but he wouldn't get that sort of thinking pose as a barrier to his learning. The art of spear and archery might be the only two things he has confidence on, but a certain cabin leader told him to continue practicing and master those instead of trying to learn every weapon. And somehow, it sounded cooler than knowing everything. A few arrows can be found pierced in the bullseye which part of the reason could be attributed to luck from his mother. Not that he didn't like his chances, but sometimes he preferred not to resort to luck. When he has a couple more arrows left in his quiver, it is only in this scenario that he needed to make them count. He drew a silent breath, eyes on the prize as he readied his stance once again to create his posture. He stood his your feet shoulder width apart, straightened his back, and drew his next arrow.

In the next moment, he let go of the string and it flew through the air and penetrated the surface of the target. It wasn't in the middle this time, but slightly further away. It is better than making the outer rims, he thought. When he relaxed, he was about to grab a sip of water when he became startled. "Oh geez." He said out of a sudden as he flinched. He didn't notice her approach the range, but he supposed he was too focused. "Can you kno-" Then realizing they are outdoors, he stopped his sentence and attempted to compose himself.  "Apologies. I didn't see you there. If you're here to practice, then I could move aside." Ibram took a couple of swigs from a bottled water that was just sitting nearby. 

[Alyssa James]

Alyssa stifled a bit of a giggle when she realized she had startled him anyway. She had deliberately been quiet to avoid it, but when he got startled anyway it was hard not to laugh. "Sorry, Ibram. I did try not to startle you." She said honestly. The two had never really had an opportunity to get to know one another. They travelled in different circles and hadn't really ever crossed paths before now. "The archery range is big enough for the both of us. You don't really have to go anywhere."

Alyssa stepped up and notched an arrow. She let it fly, hitting the target, but not in the center. "Damn..." She sighed. "I still suck at archery." Alyssa was fairly athletic, but she was much more of a hiking, rock climbing, and yoga kind of athlete than archery. She preferred hand to hand combat over weapons most of the time, so her skills with weapons were fairly rusty. Still, she figured if she was ever going to be able to go and see her dad, she should probably be able to use something made of celestial bronze someday.