Welcome to Gaia! ::

Life comes at you fast. Well, sometimes, anyway. It had quickly become clear to Toby that he should really learn at least the basics of how to fight properly, and not just whatever nonsense he saw on TV.

Suddenly being able to jump on top of buildings, and having encountered soul stealing crazy people tends to crystallize such things. Well, Toby thought so, at least. He may have been just 15, but he'd seen some s**t recently, and was not going to let it bring him down.

As luck would have it, a couple months ago he met somebody who actually knew how to do this stuff, and taught it! So it was that he got in touch with Stacey, his swamp-mucking friend from October, and asked about her martial arts lessons. Then he wheedled his parents into paying for it ("Destiny City is way scarier than you said it'd be...I'd feel a lot better if I knew how to block a punch or stop a knife," worked surprisingly well).

So it was, one cool afternoon, Toby found himself at a local gym (that had space they could use), ready to learn how to fight properly! Maybe he could be a real samurai. Probably not, though.

He opened the door into the room he'd been told to go to and said, "I hope I'm not late!"

That there might be anything perceived as “questionable” about getting lessons from a lady had never occurred to Toby, and would likely continue to be completely missed. It was probably for the best for everyone involved.

He nodded at her explanations, and said, “Early?” He blinked in surprise, considering that a moment before continuing, “An hour doesn’t seem long enough! But...I guess more than that in a day would be too much, wouldn’t it?”

With an eager smile, Toby rocked from one foot to the other and asked, “So, how do we get started?”