Orphan has asked his fellow Arrows Joshua, Tug and Falx, as well as Tam, to meet with him on the grounds of the Circle of Creation. It was time to discuss what had happened recently at the Rave, and to come up with a strategy for investigating further.

Orphan is dressed in his well-worn leather jacket, a red-and-black flannel shirt over a black-with-white-logo Metallica t-shirt, grey urban-style fatigue pants and heavy boots. While he waited for the others, Orphan practiced drawing his new weapons: a pair of collapsible batons. He'd gotten tired of being caught in situations where he didn't have his swords available and didn't want the hassles that go along with using a firearm. The forearm holsters he'd purchased for them weren't too obvious, but he was all too aware that he wasn't exactly an expert in weapon concealment. Something else to learn, but meanwhile he'd see if any of his friends were good at that sort of thing.

Falx walks onto the grounds of the Circle and takes a quick glance around almost in a paranoid manner. His loose fitting khaki pants rustle a bit as he takes a step after his glance. He wears a tan military shirt and sneakers, though gives off a vague military feel. His head swivels back and forth as he walks over to Orphan. A new close cut haircut piles on top of his behavior.

"Nice toys, they work well?"

Joshua sees the two of them and decides its time to get out of the car; he'd been there for about ten minutes, just thinking. A lot had been happening and he had a feeling the Arrows could come out on top, if they had a good battle plan. He'd been trying to put one together but still felt like he was playing by ear. He approaches the duo, hands in the pockets of his jacket. He nods in greeting and watches Orphan and his batons with an appraising eye.

"They work well for what I want," Orphan says. "A relatively easy-to-conceal melee weapon that carries a significant punch, great for those times when carrying a pair of swords just isn't practical."

In fact, Orphan was working on another solution to that problem, one that would also provide a wealth of other strategic options for himself and his allies, but the batons would serve a good purpose until that time.

"I got thinking about them after getting my ass kicked in that big free-form competition, the one Tug won. My first round, I got paired off against this escrimador chick who kicked my ass. Don't know that I'm going to go full-out in terms of studying escrima and kali, though those are pretty darn good styles, but elements of that fit well with my own fighting style."

Joshua could tell Orphan wasn't quite as comfortable with the batons as with his daisho, but from what he could tell, Orphan was pretty good with just about any melee weapon he picked up, including these new ones.

Tam comes around the building, looking lost. This was her first time at the Circle of Creation, and while it was easy to find, it was a huge building. When she sees the other three, she sighs with a smile and quickens her pace.

She is wearing sneakers and jeans with a grey pull-over hoodie with the word 'Boston' on the back. There is something in the front pocket with her hands. (A sheathed knife).

"Hey, guys!"

"Hey, Tam," Orphan says. He turns to Joshua. "Have you two met?"

Tug shows up right behind Tam, not a terrible view, not bad at all, eyes up, and - with a nod and a smile for her, his brother and the other Arrows present at the circle. "Hey, guys. Hey, Tam." The big man is wearing his heavy leather coat over an AC/DC shirt, and has a slight chuckle when he compares Orphan's attire to his own, but this is serious business, dammit, so he doesn't bring it up.

Joshua nods to Orphan as Tam and Tug arrive. "Yeah, we met real briefly at Ruby's lecture, I believe. How do you do?" he asks her, and gives Tug half a wave.

He looks the four of them over. "All right. I wasn't there, obviously, so lay it out for me: what happened exactly, and what are your concerns?"

Tam smiles at Joshua and nods, then turns her attention to Tug and gives a little wave. She looks to Orphan who probably could sum up the situation better than her.

"A group of people were watching us as far as we could tell and when we started to watch them Tug's drink flew out of his hand and spilled on Orphan. Which besides being unnecessary aggression was done in the middle of the Rage, full of sleepers. So one count of stupidity and one of risking the Abyss." Falx looks at Joshua and shrugs. "I have the urge to distrust any mages that aren't known to us, it seems safer."

Orphan nods, confirming Falx's account.

"Tam and I were dancing when I noticed these two guys not just looking our way, but focusing on us. They were situated behind a speaker, where Jammer wouldn't have been able to see them from his booth. I couldn't tell if they were focusing on me, or Tam, or both of us. I gave Tug a mental 'heads up' about the spies, but when he and Falx came to check them out, the weird thing with the drink happened, disrupting my attempt to scrutinize them.

"Tug went up to talk to Jammer, who you'd think would be interested, given his stance of neutrality and his well-known aversion to people doing magic in his place, but he blew it off, and by the time Tam and I could get through the crowd to the door, they were way down the street. I didn't know who they were, and I was reluctant to drag Tam into potential danger, since our job is to protect other mages, not endanger them, I decided to regroup with Tug and Falx.

"I did note the times of all the events, so unless someone has gone and cloaked their movements, I should be able to do postcog, in order to observe more closely what they were doing. Once I've got a fix on them, I can rewind things a bit further to see when they came in and what they were up to before I noticed them. If they were talking at all, I might even get lucky and be able to lipread a bit."

"All right, good," Joshua says once Orphan's done. "Did any of you manage to get much of a description of these guys? Anything to add? Orphan and I have already decided we're going to have to go down there and talk with Jammer."

"Uh, well, the bottle flew out of my hand after I told Jammer we were suspicious, actually. Other than that, I think Orphan summed things up. I'm willing to go down and talk with Jammer with you guys," Tug says, folding his arms in the classic defensive Tough Guy pose.

"You guys are going to need some back-up, so I'm in."

Tam copies Tug's 'Tough Guy' pose, but on her it almost looks comical. She glances up at Tug and winks.

While Tug and Tam banter, Orphan considers Joshua's request for a description of the two spies. For some reason, he'd never realized he was unable to pull such a description to mind until now.

"I can't give you a description of the spies, other than that they were two young guys," Orphan says. "Until you asked for the description just now, I was completely unaware that I didn't have one. I think they must have been shielded by some sort of effect that made their appearance unmemorable."

As he says this, Orphan's tone of voice is obviously one of being pissed off.

Tam tilts her head to one side, then blurts out, "Why don't we just ask the street?" She catches herself and says, slower, "I'm sure it got a look at those guys, and it wasn't like there were too many people running that night. We just need to rouse the spirit, maybe trade a favor for a favor, and see what we can find out."

Orphan nods. It was an idea. Knowing little of spirits, he wasn't sure how useful an idea, but it was worth exploring. "Is a street spirit going to have a sense of time, to know what people we are talking about?"

Ask the street. Ask... the street? That might be one of the dumbest things he's ever heard. But then, Joshua was Moros; Spirit was the Arcanum with the weakest connection to his realm and he'd never understood it. Didn't care to, either. (The man who spends his free time running through the Phalanxes in his head seems to conveniently forget "Do Not Have Preferences" when it comes to Spirit.) But he knows better than to say anything; besides which, Animus knew Spirit well, and he seemed pretty on the ball. So it must have its uses. Still... Ask the street?

"Okay," he says to Orphan, "No descriptions. That's fine. We'll have a talk with Jammer and see what happens. Maybe they're pals of his, just wanted to have a little fun. Or maybe they were intimidated by members of the Pentacle and that's why they were staring. It might be nothing." However, the look on his face suggests he doesn't believe that for a second.

The spirit of a road...right...well. Lets leave that to the Thyrsus. "I can't think of anything at this point. Other than maybe split in two groups and cover Jammer, the club and the road at the same time if that is what we plan to do."


"The street will know the passing of days. The spirit is probably sleeping, and rousing it to ask questions would be like asking us to remember a dream, but it is still possible." When Tam hears the suggestion of splitting up, she adds, "It won't take but a moment to wake the spirit, and it can be fairly discrete. It isn't like anyone is going to see it. In fact, I'll probably be the only one. So, we huddle around, and it looks like I am talking to you guys. Then, hopefully, with a description, we can continue on to Jammer."


"Sounds good. I can do some Postcog out on the street while you do the Spirit thing.

"One other thing, about talking to Jammer," Orphan adds, glancing at Tug, Falx and Tam. "When Joshua and I discussed this with West, he noted that Jammer is a bigshot in the apostate community. So, we need to be respectful and keep politics in mind. We come on too heavy, there might be repurcussions... making enemies of potential allies, all that. "


"He hasn't done anything against me or the Arrows to my knowledge so there shouldn't be a problem." No need for another round of "lets see how hard Falx can get his ass kicked by friendlies."

Joshua nods, thinking much along the same lines as Falx. He didn't want the Arrows to be seen as buffoons and bullies; it undercut the entirety of their mission.

He still thinks talking to the street is kinda goofy, though.