He'd let his close combat abilities get rusty; it was one of Joshua's biggest regrets. Since coming to Sacramento he'd gone through a lot of changes and as his emphasis began to change, older skills fell to the wayside. But Adaptability Is Strength is Joshua's favorite Phalanx; a pistol and some vulgar transformations are not enough to satisfy him.

So this morning, he's in the Circle in sweats and tee, pounding on a heavy bag. He'd been doing a lot of practice with guns lately; it felt good to just hit something. Repeatedly.

Returning from a run outside, Orphan sees Joshua doing bagwork. Sipping from a water bottle, he takes a moment to watch the Sentinel, studying his technique.

Orphan is dressed in sweat pants, a tie-die t-shirt with the Grateful Dead logo emblazoned on front, a green bandanna rolled up and tied around his forehead to keep sweat out of his eyes, and his well-worn boots. Since Orphan wears the boots most of the time, he doesn't see any point in working out with lighter shoes than he'll have to deal with in a crisis situation.

When Joshua stops for a breather, Orphan tosses him a towel. "If you'd like to go from bagwork to a live opponent, it might do us both good to get some hand-to-hand practice in."

Joshua towels off, nodding. "So long as you don't bring that big-ass sword," he says, "I'd like to keep my limbs." He sets the towel down and grabs a drink of water, thinking about taking off his shoes; but like Orphan he comes to the conclusion that he may as well emulate a real fight as much as possible.
He takes a moment to stretch--he'd hurt himself recently by cutting corners like this, and bagwork wasn't enough to have him limbered up.

"No sword," Orphan says. "Just body this time. Even we Wavemen don't like to rely too much on our swords."

He, too, takes a few moments to stretch, running through a few kata movements while doing so, then launching a flurry of fast kicks, elbow strikes and punches.

"Ready when you are," he says to Joshua.

Joshua watches the warmup display with a calculating eye, trying to pin down the style if there is one. At Orphan's statement Joshua wastes no time; he takes three quick steps and launches a kick towards Orphan's stomach, arms up to defend his head.

Orphan shifts his weight so the kick to the stomach only grazes his side... still painful, but not a big deal.

Knowing Joshua was more experienced, and that he was also a Moros - and thus likely relied on shielding spells that protect him from blows a lot better than from harm - Orphan decides against trying to punch it out with him. Instead, drawing on his jujutsu training, Orphan goes in for a grapple.

Orphan is successful, getting inside Joshua's guard and getting one arm around his waist, trying to establish an arm bar with with his other hand.

Joshua had always had a trouble with close-in fighting and grappling--he knows its a weakness, and when he feels that arm slide around his waist he knows he has to get away. With a twist of his hips and a couple of firm shoves he's able to break free and take a few steps back.

Orphan can sense he's found a weakness in Joshua's fighting prowess, and he intends to take advantage of it.

This time, rather than working on establishing a hold, he uses his knowledge to quickly render Joshua prone. At the same time, Orphan takes a crouching position over Joshua, the familiar "ground and pound" stance of the MMA fighter.

Joshua grunts as he hits the floor, hard, twisting on to his side so he can try and launch a kick up. He only has one real chance at this--he puts everything in to the kick, hoping to push Orphan away before the Waveman can really put a hurt on him.

Joshua gets in a more solid kick this time, and at this point Orphan is really the only one hurt... but he also knows all that really matters is who is standing at the end of the fight.

Using his superior position, he works on establishing a grapple again, while working on positioning himself so Joshua can't effectively counterattack.

He succeeds in getting Joshua in a partial pin, and knows the momentum is on his side now, because Joshua can't possible break his grip and rise before he can reestablish the grip.

Joshua slips out of the pin, trying to push himself away but not getting very far at all. He knows he's in trouble on the ground; and he knows Orphan is clearly the superior grappler. All he can do is go on the defensive, and hope he can keep Orphan from immobilizing him until an opening presents itself.

Orphan moves along with Joshua, maintaining his superior position, seeking to pin him again...

... and succeeding yet again.

Joshua tries a change in tactic, to maybe try and reverse the pin or get his elbow into Orphan's face, but results only in limp flailing and ineffectual shoves that give him no dominance.

Orphan takes advantage of Joshua's attempt to strike him, attempting to use the momentum of the missed blow to turn Joshua over and onto his stomach so it will be easier to get him completely subdued, but Joshua fights off that attempt.

It's only by pure luck that Joshua manages to avoid being turned on to his stomach; but the gods really seem to be smiling upon him: he sees a brief opening and manages to half-wiggle out form underneath Orphan, putting him into a weak hammerlock. The leverage is all wrong and he's sure the redhead will be able to break out of it easily, but for just a moment it puts him in the superior position.

Orphan is surprised and pleased to see Joshua change tactics and try to turn his own srategy against him. "Good try," he says, nodding, as he easily frees himself from Joshua's clumsy grapple. But while the grapple attempt itself was less than telling, Joshua's strategy had paid off. The only way Orphan could free himself was to break off the grapple, which meant he no longer had a hold on Joshua, and that the only advantage Orphan had now was that Joshua was prone.

Joshua seems to be on the same wavelength; as his hold is broken he rolls away, pushing himself up into a crouch and stepping back from Orphan. He takes a defensive posture and waits. Will Orphan try to grapple again, or come at him with something more offensive? He says nothing to Orphan. He seems focused on the fight--perhaps comments will come after.

Orphan follows as Joshua rolls off the floor and retreats, moving right along with him and putting little thought to defense, wanting to maximize his chance of getting a good grip on Joshua in hopes of finishing this off quickly. He succeeds, gripping him at arm and waist.

Joshua manages to keep his feet this time, which is good; but not being held would be so much better. He tries to work with it, though; instead of pulling or twisting away, he turns in to Orphan as much as he can, and jams his knee up high and hard against Orphan's side.

Josh's knee strike triggers Orphan's saved Self-Healing spell, leaving him less injured than before the strike. This time he puts everything he has into overpowering Joshua... but is not successful, Joshua twisting to avoid his holds.

Joshua tries to step away from Orphan, following up his knee attack with two quick punches; but one hits at a bad angle and slides off. The other simply doesn't land with much impact.

Orphan is starting to get frustrated... not with Joshua, but with himself. This long, he should have his opponent under control. He pushes that aside, though... time for soul-searching later.

He goes in high and uses leverage to spin Joshua so he can grab him from behind, full-nelson him and bend him downward by putting pressure on the back of his neck, rendering him unable to kick, effectively immobilizing him... at least for the moment.

Joshua strains against the weight being put on him, but his arms are locked up and no matter how he moves he can't break free. "Son of a bitch," he mutters, trying to think quickly... what could he do to get out of this?

"I think I've got you now," Orphan says. He does nothing else but maintain the hold he has on Joshua.

Joshua continues a struggle, but it starts to die out as he weighs his options. He's reasonably sure he could get out of it, but there'd be a cost... and to what end? Orphan would put him right back in a clinch. In a regular fight he would be more tenacious--but in a regular fight, he couldn't afford not to be tenacious.

He relaxes, no longer struggling against the full nelson. "Yeah, I think so," he says. Oddly enough, he sounds nearly cheery as he cedes defeat.

Orphan lets go and cautiously backs away as Joshua cedes defeat, then bows. "Good fight. You showed me I definitely need to keep working on my striking and my grappling. Been working on a lot of things, to the point I've been letting some of the basics go. Time to catch up with that."

Joshua rubs his shoulders with a grimace. "Yeah, I know the feeling," he says, trying to stretch out the kinks. "I was hoping I would magically learn how to wrestle without practicing, too. Guess not."

"Y'all having fun?" West asks, walking out. He's wearing sweat pants that are black and have large gold letters down one side: US CAVALRY. His t-shirt doesn't quite match... it looks to be a shirt from a New Order concert. It's dirty, worn, and looks to be on it's last legs. Over one shoulder is a towel. It's also the first time either man has seen him without a sidearm of some sort.

"It was good," Orphan says honestly, happy with the outcome of the contest if not necessarily his clumsiness in getting there. "Joshua gave me a good reminder that I really need to keep working on my unarmed combat. 'Adaptability is Strength' and all that," he adds, unknowingly echoing Joshua's thoughts earlier. "I've been taking that to heart, working on diversifying my skills and my Arcana knowledge, but I'm thinking I've maybe been going a bit too far in that and neglected some of the basics, not focusing enough on mastery of the things I'm already good at."

Joshua crosses back to his gear and takes a long pull from a water bottle as Orphan speaks. "Definitely a learning experience," he says, his tone a bit more business-like now that West is on the scene. "But good. It's been too long since I actually sparred with another person instead of just working out." He doesn't add that he's also been using magic a lot more than he would have thought a year ago; although a bit upset he lost, he is pleased that he was able to do as well as he did just on pure base ability.

"Kai and I used to Duel, as well," West offered. "I'm glad to see y'all aren't neglecting the more... mundane... aspects of what we do. Maybe one day we'll go see the Temenos as a training exercise," he mused. That was awfully awkward if they had never dealt with daimons before.

He sat cross-legged, unconcerned that they were still standing, and draped his towel over his head.

"Are you ready to be a First Talon, Orphan?"

Orphan is caught off guard by the question, but in a good way. He looks West eye-to-eye and nods.

"Yes, I am. I've been working on a lot of things, developing a better sense of tactics and strategy and some leadership skills. I'm ready to take on greater responsibility. I know I've got a lot more to learn, but some things you have to learn through experience, trying to make the best decisions you can. I'm ready to do that."

Joshua nods slightly at West's question, as though this were something he himself would have asked, if he could. He takes a pull from his water bottle and sits on the floor, legs underneath him. "We have a lot of work to do in this city; things I--we--have neglected, things we've put off. I think with your added leadership we would be in a good position to tackle some of those projects. Figuring out the Park situation; finding our sniper; finding the Asian Seer who likes to show up around town. And I understand there's a former Sanctum that needs to be retaken."

With the towel over his head, but much less menacing voice, West looks more like ET than Emperor Palpatine.

"The Kruegan's Arrowheads' sanctum," West agrees, with a slight frown. "Falx is looking into it, and will be calling others." It looks like he wants to say more, but doesn't. "The other problems... yeah... they're problems. I think what I'd like to do is have Joshua pick an assignment, and Orphan will be like a free safety. Joshua, since you're also a Sentinel, you'll have final operational authority over Orphan and Falx. We can either divvy up the "rest of the Arrows amongst you three, or you can pull who you need. What do y'all want to do?"


"I want the Seer," Joshua says immediately, then, surprised at his own outburst, clears his throat and tries again. "I think Animus and I were the first to see him, and it shames me that he's still out there. I know Falx has seen him so I'll be talking to him about it, try and get some information."


"I'd like to mention one other problem, or at least something that bears looking into. Maybe not as serious as some of the others, but who knows? Recently when a bunch of us were at the Rage, I noticed some guys I didn't recognize spying on me and the other Arrows present, and Tam. When we tried to get close, a whole bunch of things went wonky. I'm certain they were mages, but have no idea what their goal is. When Tug approached Jammer about it, he was entirely disinterested.

"I don't know who they were or what their goal was, but I think it needs looking into. They could be after us, or Tam, or who knows? I've marked the times so I can try some Postcog mojo, hopefully figure out their angle and if it's something we need to deal with, but given Jammer's stance on magic in his place and his lack of interest so far, I'm figuring it might take a Sentinel's authority to get Jammer to let us in during off hours to do my thing."


West nodded to both. "OK, sounds like y'all know what you want to chase. Be careful with the Seers," he said, "and with the Apostates. Jammer, from what I hear, has major influence in the Apostate community. They may not be a fraction as powerful as we are individually, but they have number -- and it's damn hard to recruit if they all hate us." He paused. "I met this Tam girl... she seems pretty damn confused. She isn't Arrow material," he added, looking at Orphan.

"No, I don't think so either," he agrees. "But she might be a potential ally, and since part of our job is watching out for other mages, it will be good to know if she's a factor in this, or if she just happened to be there. The important thing is finding out what those guys were up to, and who they are."

Turning to Joshua, he says "I think you can count us all in when it comes to the Sanctum and the Seers."

"Glad to hear it," Joshua says. "We have a good crew here, I feel; we just need to tighten up a bit. Put a bit more work in to honing our abilities, and going out and giving the Pentacle here a reason to trust they are safe with us. We haven't done enough in that regard.
"So. I can go talk to Jammer as Sentinel and see what happens. I think I need to talk with you and Tug first, maybe Tam too, get the full story before I go in there. I'd need as many details as possible so I actually know what I'm talking about." He goes quiet, thinking about how hard this is going to be; the Rage isn't his scene, at all. And Jammer's going to know it; and Jammer's going to make it hard for him. He's probably a lot like Zero that way.


"I'd suggest we all talk it out, and then I go with you, so that if you can get Jammer to let us in, we can just go in and do it and be done with it. I know he doesn't like magic going on in his place, so if we can get him to let us in at all, it's probably better to just get it done with... plus, I really don't like the way he just blew off the whole thing when Tug talked to him about it. I wouldn't think he'd be involved in what was going on - I didn't see any sign of that - but maybe those guys were apostates, even friends of his. If he knows we're wanting to look into that night, that would give him opportunity to try to stop postcog from working." He shrugs. "Heck, if he does know them, he or they might have already done that, to cover their tracks, but if not, there's no reason to provide any warning."

It occurs to Orphan that if magic has been used to prevent a reading of that event, that also would provide them with some information.

With a shrug, West replied, "Sounds like a plan, but be careful. I've never dealt with the guy, so I have no idea how much respect he has for the Pentacle. But, yeah, it sounds like y'all have a good idea of what needs to be done. Anything else?"

Not suprising neither really jumped on going back to the Park.


"I've been giving a lot of thought to group training exercises, starting with just some basic tactics, strategy and teamwork stuff, and maybe establishing some codewords for quick communication in various situations. The biggest weakness I've seen in the field is that we don't mesh well as a team yet. That cost us in Granite Park, and we can't afford it costing us like that again. With both your permission, I'd like to work on remedying that, in addition to pursuing the missions we're talking about."

"That sounds like a good idea. I'd also like y'all to practice working as fireteams... uh, that's a team of three or four," West clarified for Orphan. "What roles people need to fill, threat assessment, rapid deployment. That kind of thing. A lot of guys get together as individual mavericks -- but one of the reasons Kai and I had so much success is that we worked together, rather than individually for the same goal. You know what I mean?"

Orphan nods. "I know what you mean, and agree 100%. That's part of what I was thinking. My goal is for all of us to be flexible that we can work efficiently with whomever among the Arrows we end up working with on a given mission, but I would also like to develop some specific groups who are very used to working with each other, each person with a clear role in the team. All of us, myself included, need to get better at working as a team. So, with your agreement, I'll get started setting up some general training, with with an eye toward using how people perform at that to identify start building solid fireteams."

Joshua nods as he listens to this, clearly agreeing that this would be a step in the right direction. When West mentions 'threat assessment,' it reminds Joshua of something. "Sir," he says to West, "A few months ago, when you had us break down the Doomsday Clock confrontation, you mentioned Legacies as part of your threat assessment. Do we have any resources here to learn more about those? I was unfamiliar with the concept until you mentioned it."

"The Curator might have some reference material, or I could tell you about the ones I know of. Some Orders and Paths have their own variants of soulcrafting, which may be harder to learn about," West replied. "Overall, they're kind of mysterious, in that only the Awakened can shape themselves like this, yet it's a process that transcends and bypasses the objection of the Fallen and the Abyss."

Which I think is still just fucking weird, because Sleepers and Sleepwalkers should be able to.

And meanwhile, Joshua is thinking, The Curator... What price, exactly, will I have to pay for that info? Out loud he asks, "So these are... recurring organizations, split within the Paths and Orders? Similar philosophies of soulcrafting that have spread over time?"

Orphan nods. "The Brotherhood of the Demon Wind started as an Awakened master samurai and his students, back in feudal Japan. It's been around for hundreds of years and spread all over the world. From what I understand, they're not all that old - my mentor says the Free Council has started quite a few new legacies over the past century or so - but some of them are a lot older, including some that are supposed to date back to Atlantis."

"The... shaping of one's soul doesn't always go in a direction that others' have," West said, agreeing with Orphan. "Or at least a direction that has enough followers to codify. Kai, I think you met him Joshua, was beginning to experience his own transcendance, although it was slower and more difficult than following someone else's footsteps with a Mentor..."

"But, yeah, most Mages find themselves on paths that have been tread before. Learning, recognizing these can tell you a lot about a person. Not just capabilities, but who and what they truly are. It's about the soul," West said, intently. "You can't fake it. If it isn't who you truly are, the Attainments won't manifest... if something... cataclysmic happens to change you... you can become too disconnected, and can't unlock the power within anymore."


Joshua nods as he listens, taking this all in. "I don't want to take up a lot of your time," he says to West, "So I'll go to the Curator and see what she can point me towards. This is all very interesting. I'm surprised I hadn't heard any of this before, but at the same time I guess you wouldn't want neophytes attempting to attain things they don't understand or aren't ready for." Which, now that he thought about it, was pretty much the one true fact of Awakened existence.

West nods to Joshua. "Well, a lot of times, Legacy followers will notice someone and observe them for a while -- then finally approach them. It's definitely one of the more obscure topics to try and study as a whole."

He extends a leg and begins stretching.


Seeng West is getting ready to start his workout, Orphan says "I think I'm going to go ahead and start making plans for the training sessions. One of these days I still want to start picking up that Parkour stuff, though." He turns to Joshua. "If you'd like to talk about the Legacy I follow some time, I'd be glad to try to explain it to you... best I can, anyhow, since I've not gotten that far yet."


Well, that was disconcerting, too. He didn't like the idea of covert observation--at least, not if he was the one who might be getting observed. And Joshua realized that these two men were both in Legacies; were they observing him, weighing and measuring him, judging his potential? Was everyone?
"Well," he said to Orphan, suddenly a bit uneasy. "I'd certainly be interested in learning about them, sure. Some other time I think, though. I've got a lot of work to do, lot of irons to get into the fire." He stands up and reaches out a hand to shake Orphan's. "Nice fight--thanks for the lesson. I'll see you both around."

"Likewise," Orphan says. "It was a good workout for me, too, gave me some ideas of some areas in need of improvement."