Napoli Fiordilatte - Shooting Range"Hey Oli, still picking out your weapon?"For the sniper, memories were often his landline, a way to avoid the perils of dehumanizing everything. It would be easy to drift away while doing his job, to just view everything through the scope and forget the reality of his situation. Memories would bring him back home and remind him of what was important, even when the world around him turned unreal.
"Yeah, you know me, can't have anything too messy."
Bang!As was often the case, even the moving target at the range was an easy shot for the young boy. The cheese eater had long since stopped going to the range solely to train, sure constant refinement was helpful, but the real benefit was the mental training. However even more important was the calming effect it had on his overall health. While in combat there was that ever present danger of growing detached, at the range it was almost a blessing. It was his way of zoning away and completely putting his troubles behind him, not worrying about the what ifs, could haves, and should haves. This was his meditation, his way of reassessing everything.
"I'm guessing you've already decided on keeping your mom's rapier then? Secondary form is a little tricky."Breathe.
Relax.
Breathe.
As the tension in his muscles faded, giving way to the simple pull of his trigger, newer memories presented themselves for evaluation. Truth be told Vignoble's cheese eating, pun making, idiot of a teammate was still struggling with how things had turned out. A large part of him was actually questioning his remaining time at Beacon. He had signed up to fight monsters, not slaughter humans (as deplorable they might have been). There had been casualties in the last fight, and a part of him was certain he could have found a way to stop them. Bianca was a mess, Gratia's arrogance had reached a new high, he wasn't sure what to think of Beryl, and Vega was nowhere to be seen. Yet for some reason, he felt like half the crisis could have been averted if he had been just a little faster.
And perhaps, some of that was a result of his own arrogance.
"Guns tend to be messy, at least things like an assault rifle which love to rip and tear."
"It'd also be hard to limit collateral."Whatever the case, a part of him kept running over the events of the past few days. Perhaps if they had been quicker Bianca could have been spared much of her suffering, perhaps he should have stayed with Beryl and helped her, he could even have been faster dealing with his opponents so he could back up Gratia. The fact remained that people were dead and injured and part of that responsibility fell squarely on his shoulders.
What kind of Hunter hunted humans?
"I got it Oli. A sniper would solve both problems."So for now he trained and focused, the past was the past, he just needed to make sure next he was faster and that next time his aim was true.
If there was a next time.
"Think I have the aim for it tho? Might need to scope things out first."
"Just barrel through, you'll figure it out."Barrel through, it was funny how Albano's advice always stuck with the young man. Even when the situation felt rough, or nigh impossible, somehow thinking of the only home that mattered managed to center him. Contrary to the beliefs of some people, the sniper wasn't much of a material person, on the contrary it was often the sentimentality of the intangibles that meant the most to him. When the path before him became muddled, it was those intangibles that brought him joy, it was those that gave him a purpose again.
"Think about it Oli, you could even have like a pistol for too close stuff, but between your dueling and your sniping, people would hard pressed to get near you."
"Aim to please in any situation?"
"Exactly."So here he was, a path spiraling out before that he could not see the end of. On the one hand was a betrayal of the ideals he joined the Hunters for in the first place. He existed to serve humans and faunus, to protect them by killing monsters, not by hurting other humans or faunus. Right now he wasn't sure whether this path would guide him in that direction or not. On the other hand, there was a chance for reform, to show the world what it meant to be a Hunter, that some ideals truly were worth fighting for, regardless of so called naivete. The only question was whether this academy was his only path to such a goal, or whether he was better served finding a new home to develop himself at.
"Guess it's time to expand your range Oli. I'll help you train."By now all of the targets had been riddled countless times. At this point there really wasn't much left to do at the range, both from a shooting standpoint and for his own mental health. Yet there was one ritual that still struck him as Scapino reverted back into components for Napoli to sheathe. A ritual that brought him clarity even when nothing else would, one that connected him to the other important figure in his life. His right hand reached for the pendant around his neck, rubbing but not opening it, as five words returned to his memory.
"Stay strong. Mio figlio prediletto."
Stay strong. 
Izurich