thenearshore | 013 | Down To Business

Entry tags:

013 | Down To Business

Who: Everyone!
What: Training
When: Morning June 16
Where: Bishamon's temple
Summary: Training sessions for everyone to learn more about their abilities and jobs!

Many people have been wanting to know more about their abilities and what they are required to do here in the Far Shore. So, in conjunction with Bishamonten, the Heavens have seen fit to offer an open training session for everyone to participate in. Here you will be able to learn anything and everything about what you should be able to do and what is expected of you in your new positions.

Bishamon's temple is sweeping and gorgeous, having previously been home to hundreds of shinki. She has graciously offered to hold this training session and will be available to help anyone who needs it.

Equipment

Various kinds of mannequins and dummies have been provided for practice, as well as targets that are either stationary or move, depending on your will. Punching bags, jumping blocks, and a large pool area have also been provided for your use, so that you can find a tool for pretty much anything that you might need to practice. Plenty of practice weapons of various weights, sizes, and shapes are also available upon request from any of the many white-clad shinki that are also attending today.

God Training

Bishamon herself will be the foremost source of information regarding being a god and what is expected of you. It is also encouraged that gods group up together to practice what they've learned and discuss their ideologies. Random groupings can be provided by the mods or you may come up with your own groupings together.

Shinki Training

Various shinki are available to help with shinki training, including Kazuma and all of Bishamon's shinki. Additionally, the white-clad shinki will be more than happy to train you on using the borderline and some of the basics of what is expected of a shinki. It is also encouraged that shinki group up together to practice what they've learned and discuss their ideologies. Random groupings can be provided by the mods or you may come up with your own groupings together.

Refreshments

There is a refreshments table provided. It is covered with light snacks and various kinds of hydrating drinks. There is a little sitting area set up for people to relax in after they have finished their training or if they're even just taking a quick break to cool down. The Heavens want you to stay in good condition!

In Summary:

Use the state of the art equipment
Learn about your job
Form groups to practice
Don't get dehydrated
Spectate if you want
Have fun~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ken looks up when she starts to say his name, although it's anyone's guess if he realized what she was about to say. His head tilts quizzically at her staring, but there's no recognition in his eyes.

Weird, she's not even yelling at him.]

[Spotted! Imagine the Metal Gear Solid noise here.]

Ah-- Ah... [She doesn't know how to respond, simply gazing at him for a moment before she turns to the table. She's tempted to grab the apples, but she's worried it'll be too similar to back then and trigger a memory.

Instead she reaches for these little fruit tarts on display and examines them a moment, before taking some napkins as well and extending them both to him.]

...Your face. [She uses a free hand to point to her own cheek] You have something on it. [Understatement of the century.]

[The gesture of giving food isn't quite as meaningful here as in their own world, where there's already a buffet of free food sitting in front of them that Ken's been gorging himself on, and which Chrome's simply borrowed food off of to hand to him directly. The impact is somewhat lessened. It's not an apple, either, although without memories of Mukuro, an apple probably wouldn't have meant anything special to Ken anyway - not on any conscious level, at least.

But it's clear his brain has still screeched to a halt, regardless. A cute girl is giving him food? And a napkin? And talking to him voluntarily, without obvious disgust? These things are both noteworthy, and totally outside his realm of experience. (Granted, his realm of experience is incredibly small, with no memories to build off of, but he finds he has no instinctual reaction to reach for here. If he bothered thinking about it, he could probably come to the conclusion that this isn't a situation he's ever been familiar with.

The half-eaten sandwich in his hands gets dropped on the table as he grabs the napkin and tart, one to each hand. He stuffs the entire tart into his mouth - a messy process - and then scrubs roughly at his face with the napkin.

He's turning faintly red, but it's hard to tell if that's embarrassment or if he's struggling not to choke on a flaky pastry that, before cramming, was slightly larger than his mouth.

Ken's every bit as smooth and graceful as Chrome remembers.]

[It's a comfort to have it reaffirmed that, with or without memories, Ken will be the same lovable oaf as always. It feels like things haven't changed at all, like this is just another day at home except with fewer insults and grumbling being thrown.

At the same time, it's a dagger in her heart. It's not the same, there's fewer insults and grumbles because he doesn't know her to throw them. She should be happy, maybe, but she misses his thinly-veiled affection.

Still, it makes Chrome smile at him and she reaches for a water bottle as well, unscrewing the cap before holding it out.]

Here. Please don't choke. If something happened to you, it'd be... a little too sad. [She glances away, collecting herself, and then looks back. Unlike Chikusa, she doesn't worry too much about him picking up on the subtle nuances of her behavior. Ken was refreshingly straight-forward like that, usually.]

...My name is Chrome. [Because she realizes, belatedly, that she needs to do that, introduce herself. Re-introduce?]

[Ken grabs the water from her - not particularly graciously, though for once that may be more due to 'a desire to not choke' than a simple lack of manners - and uses it to help force the rest of his monstrous mouthful down before coughing, blinking away the way the choking had started to make his eyes water.] Why would it be sad, byon? [He asks this with genuine confusion - not simply because Chrome doesn't know him, but because the idea of anyone caring about him without having some kind of investment in him is rather foreign.

He may not retain any memories, but his experiences in his past life still shaped him and his base expectations. And his base expectations have always been that no one necessarily cares if he lives or dies. The notable exceptions to this have all been forgotten.]

...'m Ken. [He fidgets a little, self-consciously. She's still a cute girl, one who's being nice to him, and Ken's tastes haven't changed dramatically with his death.]

Pleased to meet you. [Again, really, but of course she doesn't say that.]

And it'd be sad because you'd be hurt or dead. [SIMPLE. Like, obviously, come on now.] ...And I wouldn't like to see something happen to you. [A pause and she adds, belatedly:] Or most others.

[Moving right along before that can get any more awkward (too late)...] You're a shinki?

...why? [Ken's rather baffled by this. Of course, even in their past lives Ken found it confusing to the point of aggravation when someone outside the Kokoyu gang took any interest in their well-being. To him, normal has always been no one else caring if he lives or dies. And here, with no memories of anyone ever caring about him beyond his level of usefulness, he finds it even more inexplicable.]

And yeah, I'm a shinki. [He puffs up a little with self-importance.] I serve A - [And then he remembers Chikusa's warning, and flinches a little.] ...err, Hestia, byon.

['Why'? She blinks, tilting her head thoughtfully] Hmm... I wonder... [How does she explain without explaining??] There's something about you I like, I suppose. It'd be sad to lose it.

[Sure, let's go with that.

She wonders about the flinching and her brow furrows slightly. Hestia, which means--] Axel-san. [Which means he's with Chikusa. Good. Even if they don't recognize each other, it's good they have each other] I know of him. I'm a god as well. [Which is still really weird to say out loud]

[Ken simply...stares at Chrome, for a long moment. This is maybe the first time in his life - certainly the first time in his truncated memory - that anyone's ever said they like something about him. Maybe Mukuro had, once upon a time, but if he did it was probably something about Ken's usefulness, or in terms of Ken being amusing. Never just - that he genuinely liked something about Ken, specifically.

Then he turns red, practically all the way to his ears, and hurriedly looks away like someone losing a staring contest with the sun.]

Th - that's stupid, byon. [His tongue is stumbling over the words, but the huffy tone is one Chrome will be intimately familiar with. Whenever Ken gets embarrassed and self-conscious, he tends to default to it, and death hasn't changed it a bit.] You don't just randomly like people you just met!

[He has to glance back at her when she mentions she's a god, though.] You're a god, too? And you know Axel-sama?

Maybe. [Honestly to anyone else it would be too, trying to peek into the relationship from the outside even before Ken had lost his memories. But Chrome smiles anyway, giving a small shrug.] But... It's still true, either way. Sometimes you get a feeling. 'Love at first sight.' [A pause. She tilts her head.] Or something like that. Friendship at first sight.

[Stop Chrome, go easy on Ken he is a simple dog.

She bows her head lightly, partly to say yes and partly out of a sort of greeting] Mm. My name is Chrome-- Here, I'm Nephthys. I don't know Axel-san personally, but I know of him. [And it's incredibly weird to hear someone else being called '-sama'.]

[Chrome, he almost just died again. The amount of red he turns at 'love at first sight', and the way he almost sags when she specifies friendship, is almost pathetically obvious. Ken's...never been particularly subtle with his emotions. He's an open book written in large print for the visually impaired.

He's incredibly lucky to have something to distract him before he spontaneously combusts.] Neth - Nep - [He's struggling to pronounce it. But he has to get this right, because already he likes Chrome and he knows that it can be dangerous to call gods by their real names, so - he's definitely supposed to call her that if he's talking about her with anyone else, right? Or something bad might happen to her. So he struggles with it, long after he would normally have given up and bitched about it being too hard. Which admittedly isn't saying much, since any attempt beyond the first failure would be more than he would normally do. But he's just...going to keep going until he gets it right or Chrome helps him, whichever comes first.

When Ken eventually regains his memories of Mukuro, he will be mortified that he's called anyone else but him '-sama'. And it will cause raging internal conflict, because his loyalty to Axel won't suddenly go away when that happens. He's going to be a very torn dog, caught between two masters.]

[Somewhere in the back of her mind there's an imaginary little kufufu that makes Chrome both pleased and very regretful she's teased him that far. Mukuro would have bee proud and that's both good and terribly bad.]

Nephthys. [She'll slow the pronunciation down some for him here. Throw him a bone, as it were.] You can just call me 'Chrome,' if it's easier.

Nephthys. [He parrots this back faithfully - he's clearly good at imitation, especially with her actively trying to help him - repeating it a few times so he can fix it in his head.] Chrome's easier, but people say that calling gods by their real names can be dangerous, byon.

[Which means Ken is actively concerned that he'd be putting her in danger if he called her Chrome. Ken never bothers with putting extra thought into things unless he thinks it's really important. In that way, he's similar to Chikusa, except that Chikusa avoids effort rather than brain activity.]

Do you know a guy named Chikusa? [He asks this in total innocence; she knows Axel, Chikusa is his fellow shinki, she might know him. That Chrome intimately knows who Chikusa is, or that she might find it weird to hear his actual name from Ken's mouth rather than 'Kakipii', are things he couldn't possibly know.]

[She smiles as he gets the pronunciation] Yes. Good job. [She looks curious at that, though.] Is it? I hadn't thought so... Who told you that?

[Chikusa, maybe?? Chikusa might have gotten some weird ideas like this from somewhere... Which is why it's a little startling to hear Ken ask it so suddenly. She tenses, eyes widening just slightly; his full name, even, not a nickname... It's like talking to a not-quite-accurate illusion replacing Ken rather than Ken himself, and for every step closer she feels she's getting to something familiar, things happen that set her back again.]

...Ah. Yes. We've met, and spoke a few times. You're going to be living with him too, right? You should try to get along.

That stupid kappa told me, byon. [Ken huffs.] He said I should always call Axel-sama Hestia to people, or he might get in trouble...so you could too, right?

[He makes a face at the idea of getting along with Chikusa.] He's boring, byon. And he keeps telling me all this stupid stuff. [Like facts and vital information and stuff Ken shouldn't do. Truly, Ken is oppressed.]

Kappa... [The fact that he stills calls him that, at least, brings an amused, fond smile to Chrome's face again.] I've ever heard of such a thing, honestly. But I don't mind. I can handle trouble.

[Oh boy. She's really trying not to laugh at him] It might be stupid, but... It's also probably some things you should remember. He's a good guy, you'd do well to stick by him. [Is this cheating? It feels a little like cheating, encouraging this friendship]

You? [Ken blinks at her disbelievingly.] But...you're a girl, byon.

[Smack him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper, Chrome. Ken's not had much exposure to the fairer sex, and what exposure he has had has all been forgotten. It's hard to tell if he's already forgotten the fact that she's a god - despite it being the main topic of their conversation - he's just not considering what that means, if he assumes that it's irrelevant compared to a threat that jeopardizes gods in any case, or if he's just not thinking much period. It could be any or several of the above, with Ken.

At Chrome's gentle prodding that he should stick with Chikusa, Ken positively whines.] Do I have to? [He's treating it like an order even though it was a mere suggestion.]

[Jesus christ Ken. She looks down at her dress and her skirt. She looks up at Ken.] ...Yes. [Good job, gold star, who wants a treat.

But his definitely-a-whine makes her smile again.] Yes. I'm afraid you do. [Well okay she'll make it more like an order if that's what it'll take.] I'm sure you'll come to enjoy his company too.

So even girl gods are really strong, byon? [As sexist as Ken's being, it's coming from a place of genuine ignorance. Chrome will know that even before he lost his memories, his association with girls was almost solely through herself and M.M., which was an interesting education. But before them, he'd barely so much as talked to a girl since the Estraneo experiments; it wasn't as if his life with Mukuro and Chikusa offered a lot of opportunities for socializing. (Or like most girls would be interested in being anywhere near a feral dogchild who only bathes when yelled at to do so.) Now, he doesn't even remember the two dangerous, powerful women he knew personally.

As for Chikusa...it's hard not to be willing to put up with the guy, however boring and annoying he might be, when a cute girl smiles at Ken and asks him to make friends with him. Ken's starting to turn red again.] What, you like him or something, byon? [There's a mixture of huffiness and jealousy in the inquiry.]

[Ken, for fuck's sake. Chrome makes a strangled noise and covers her mouth, but it's too late. She begins to laugh-- it's just such a Ken thing to say, she can't help but feel relieved. She'll leave the question alone without answering though--he'll find out ho strong the female gods are sooner or later, and hopefully not in a painful manner.

The question makes her smile warmly again as her laughter subsides.] ...It's not like that, but I like Chikusa too, just as I like you. So, because I like you both, I would like it for you to get along.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

013 | Down To Business

np~

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