August Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: August 15
Where: Bishamon's temple, the Far Shore
Summary: Training and informational sessions for newly arrived gods and shinki



In anticipation of the latest round of new arrivals, Heaven has partnered with the new gods and shinki to organize a very helpful informational reception.

Gods and shinki arriving at heaven's meeting hall are, should they allow it, guided kindly towards Bishamon's temple. In that vast complex they are brought to a traditional-style dojo. The gods and shinki are free to take their time during this day to learn about the details of their new life from Amaterasu's shinki or from the many veteran new god and shinki volunteers.




God Training

Unfortunately, Bishamon is away on business today, but her shinki as well as Amaterasu's ever-present shinki and any volunteering gods will offer information regarding being a god and what is expected of them, such as prayers. It is encouraged that gods group up together to practice what they've learned and discuss their ideologies.
Newly arrived gods are still expected to communicate to their shinki the information* they themselves receive as orientation when they arrive.

Shinki Training

Various volunteers are stationed around the building, passing out helpful informational pamphlets. There are many shinki, including Bishamon's and Amaterasu's, who will be more than happy to train in using the borderline as well as offering a lecture on the basics of what is expected of a shinki and the importance of teamwork with other shinki and with gods. It is encouraged that shinki group up together to practice what they've learned and discuss their ideologies.

Physical Training

The dojo is stocked with a wide variety of practice weapons, traditional and modern. There are volunteers here as well, willing to assist in basic training. (Or even more advanced sparring, depending on the volunteer.) This is vital for gods who, for example, find themselves with a sword shinki but are at risk of cutting off their own toes.
It's also useful for veteran new gods wishing to train with their current partner shinki.

Rest and Refreshments

There is a garden off the dojo that is free to be used for rest and conversation.
Should anyone wander outside the designated area, some shinki of Bishamon's will attach themselves to them and not leave them be until they return to the dojo.

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 just taking a quick break to cool down. Even hand towels are provided by Bishamon's helpful shinki. The Heavens wants everyone to stay in good condition!

In Summary:

• Get all the information you can handle
• Veteran new gods and shinki are welcome to volunteer showing the ropes
• Get in some training
• Don't get dehydrated
• Spectate if you want
• Have fun~

Comments

[revolutionfalcon]

[A: Physical Training 1]

[Shun is decidedly not new, but he is one of the most prone to making himself available to train any newcomers who wouldn't know one end of a weapon from the other. Or, in this case, one end of their body, because he's currently doing quite a display of acrobatics between a small cluster of blocks and beams, flipping and leaping between them in smooth, practiced motions.

If anyone comes within a few feet of the area, Shun pauses in his motions, landing neatly and looking whoever it is over. There's something piercing about his gaze, like he's trying to read anything he possibly can out of them with just that.]

Training or watching? [Might as well get that out of the way.]

--

[B: Physical Training 2]

[Later in the day, as ever, Shun can be found either beating down a very unfortunate training dummy with his bare hands and very precise, calculated motions, or practicing some sword techniques on another, equally unfortunate target. It's likely obvious to anyone experienced in combat that while he's very familiar and skilled with the hand-to-hand, his swordfighting lacks experience and polish and still skews a bit towards brute force. But he's getting better with each training session - there's no shortage of skilled sword users here to spar with, and he refuses to give up until he becomes capable with it.]

(i.)

[Some people may approach him for training, whether newcomers or experienced themselves. Either way, Shun stops to look them over before giving a pointed glance over to an emptier patch of the dojo.]

If you're here to fight, then let's go. [It doesn't seem to matter to him whether they want to spar with fists or swords - his response is the same.]

(ii.)

[Others might simply end up with the head of a particularly brutalised training dummy flying into the back of their head. Thankfully, it's not heavy enough to do any actual damage, but Shun looks entirely unapologetic as he lowers his fists or his sword, depending.]

Pay more attention. You're in a training area.

--

[C: Rest and Refreshments]

[Despite his general intent to do as much work as he's physically capable of without literally keeling over, Shun does have the sense to pause for water breaks on occasion. He is, however, avoiding the main refreshments table, instead wandering a little restlessly throughout the temple gardens, eyes on every person he comes across.

There's some pruned flower stems lying by the sides of some of the plant bushes, most of them some degree of dead or blemished. Shun picks a bundle of them up initially planning to decompose them with his powers so they at least do something productive, but a particularly loud clatter of weapons together makes him hiss quietly and move on. Part of the reason he's out this far is to get some peace and quiet.

Eventually, he settles on the edge of a fountain, half a bottle of water next to him and his eyes still in near-constant motion over his surroundings. His fingers are moving restlessly, but as a result of what he happened by earlier, there's a small bundle of now hale and healthy ranunculus flowers of various colours next to him.

Without paying any apparent attention at all to the flowers, his fingers continue weaving three of them into a flower crown. He does pause in the movements if anyone approaches him, though.]

If you're going to complain about the flowers, they were already cut. [...And all the other already-cut flowers around are dead. Not suspicious at all.]

c

[nopixiedust]

I'm not complaining.

[Wendy is just grinning. Pleased.]

[You know why, Shun.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[There's a slight, somewhat dismissive huff from Shun.] You wouldn't.

[Though he's still not paying much attention to his hands, he weaves the ends of the crown together and offers it to her. It's a medium sort of size, so it's likely it'll fit her at least reasonably well.]

It's something to do with my hands. Don't overthink it.

[nopixiedust]

[Gladly, she takes it to place upon her head. There's no fancy hair styles done today, only a long braid meant to keep her hair out of her way as she trains. That's most of her outfit, in fact. Hibiki might like to dress up no matter where she is, but Wendy is sensible about this.]

[And actually training.]

I'm just glad to see you're doing it! I wasn't sure you would after I taught you.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun's seen Hibiki's excuse for "training" here before - one of these days he'll be bored and self-hating enough to try and drag her into doing something productive, but today isn't that day. At least Wendy has the sense to be doing it even if her god doesn't.

With a brief shrug, Shun gathers a few of the white flowers out of the bunch and starts weaving them together.] If I need something to do with my hands, I can't always hone my knife, or it's going to do it more harm than good. This is another option, no matter how pointless the end result is.

[...Well, maybe not entirely pointless, but he hasn't found any lilies here yet to make it less pointless.]

[nopixiedust]

Maybe you should get a hobby that doesn't revolve around violence.

[Personally, she'd suggest maybe knitting since it's useful, but... Shun doesn't seem like the kind of guy.]

Anyway, so you're taking a break?

c

[blizzardrock]

I hope you aren't collecting these... [He means the dead ones, which he's leaning over to look at.]

Did you find these already here, too?

[revolutionfalcon]

Why would I? [It's not like they don't have plenty of flowers at the temple anyway. Shun shoots a sidelong glance at the dead flowers Fubuki's inspecting.]

There's bundles of them all around the place. Someone must've been pruning. [Since the flowers all have one thing in common, and that's the fact that they're blemished to some degree.

His fingers start working restlessly again as he talks. It doesn't seem like he's paying any attention to them at all, with how much he's paying to everything else around him.]

[blizzardrock]

You don't have to be bringing it with you to collect them...

Ah— [He holds up a finger.] Before you call that pointless, let me just say that people do things restlessly.

[And Shun certainly seems more restless than usual. He straightens and crosses his arms, watching Shun work.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I only picked up one bunch. It was just from one of the bigger bushes. [So he wouldn't argue that he was really collecting them for that reason either.] I was originally going to decompose them.

[But then he got thrown off, and now he's here. This is a bit more restless than he usually is - he's had a lot of reason to worry this past week and not a lot of opportunity to work it off. Training has been helping, but sometimes he just needs to sit and think and do something mindless like sharpen his dagger...or make flower crowns.]

[blizzardrock]

[Decomp—] Ah...really. [Not being one to take care of flowers other than arranging them (maybe), he doesn't catch onto the fertilizer idea right away. Just the mental image of Shun decomposing flyers...]

If you're worried someone will see you, I'll stand guard. [Said somewhat playfully—he doesn't actually believe it's the reason for Shun's roving gaze. He turns away to get a better look at the path back to the training area, anyway.]

[He lets another moment elapse.] Shun... [He'd meant to ask this earlier, before other things turned his mind elsewhere.] Did you talk to Yukine about something before he left the other day?

C

[lostinshadows]

Why would I complain about the flowers?

[He sits against the fountain and peers at Shun from underneath a book he had snagged to keep himself occupied while watching everyone else train.

That is, to say of course, that he hasn't attempted to do some self-inflicted physical therapy himself in the meantime.]

...Are you making flower crowns?

[revolutionfalcon]

It's someone else's garden. Some busybody is going to complain eventually. [But he's probably right in saying it wasn't going to be Lavi. He's not particularly surprised to see the other sitting out and reading, especially given the state he was in when they last talked.]

Someone taught me a while ago. It's something to occupy my hands. [He doesn't seem to think much of it, weaving together the ends of a crown in purple and red and setting it aside before giving Lavi a long look.] Did you find a healer?

[lostinshadows]

Eventually, but I think you don't have to worry about that now. [At least he's up and moving?

Just don't try to get him to do some hard training okay.]

Mind if I asked who? [There's a pause before he chuckles softly.] I did - plenty of them, in fact, but I'm still not a hundred percent. A guy named Hakkai seems to think I'm cursed.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Given what Lavi looked like the other day, giving him hard training is about the last thing on Shun's mind. He frowns a bit at the request to say who taught him, but after a few moments he seems to decide it's not that big an issue.]

Wendy. When I was trying to get rid of the excess in my garden, she came over to get some and insisted I needed to have more "fun" with them. [That sure sounds like a word Shun doesn't use often.

There's a bit of a flat, raised brow at the mention of Hakkai before Shun sighs.] He probably knows what he's talking about, though I hate to say it.

[lostinshadows]

Wendy has some good advice. [Even if Shun doesn't exactly sound "thrilled" by it.] Flower crowns are bound to make some people happy.

[...Hakkai isn't really well-liked, is he?

Lavi hums softly.] Probably, but I'd rather not think of the possibility I'm cursed. [Even if it does seem to be the most likely answer to his current condition, anyway.]

C

[fullcowl]

[He feels like every other time he sees Shun he's here. But this is a new look for him. Usually, he's out there practicing, but he's honestly kind of glad that Shun's taking a break.]

I wasn't going to. I didn't know you could make flower crowns like that.

[revolutionfalcon]

[The flowers in his fingers are red and white in this instance, and he starts threading the stems together again with deft motions after a few moments. He's not looking at the near-finished crown, though, instead paying attention to Izuku.]

Someone showed me how to do it a few months ago. It's nothing important, but it's something to occupy my hands.

[He shrugs a bit, as if it doesn't matter to him, and starts weaving the ends of the crown together.]

[fullcowl]

[He looks at the flowers and his very first thought is, "Shouto colors." But his gaze will settle back on Shun.]

It seems like you've been practicing.

[That looks nearly effortless.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Not this, but it's similar to things I had to be good at in my world. [Strengthening and tying ropes for moving supplies, or building solid shelters...the material is different, but the weave is similar.

Though he can't say he hasn't done this a few times before as well. In any case, he glances up at Izuku as he sets the first crown aside and picks up another pair of colours - two flowers in a strong red, and two in a colour so dark it might as well be black.] If you're that interested, I can show you how to do it. It's not hard.

[fullcowl]

[If Shun wants to add more to that, then he's free too. But again, Izuku doesn't pry.

But he will take a seat across from Shun. Briefly, he has to wonder if Shun's colors are at random or picked for somebody else's color scheme.]

I'd like to learn.

C!

[shadowrevenger]

[At first, Ren only spots him from behind, so he quietly sneaks up behind him to surprise him (because Shun definitely can't hear that coming and it totally isn't a thing he's done before). As soon as he gets close enough to see what shun is doing, though, he completely drops any pretext of sneakiness and leans right over him, looking absolutely delighted.]

Oooh! I didn't know you knew how to do that!

[revolutionfalcon]

[Ren has picked rather a good time to show up, and Shun nods a little in greeting as he starts to weave together the ends of a crown made up of purple and pink flowers.]

Someone taught me back when I was trying to get rid of the excess I cut from my temple garden. [As it turns out, he'd learnt quite a bit about handling flowers that day.

Once he finishes connecting the ends of the one he's working on, he sets it aside - there's quite a few of them there, courtesy of the number of people he's had ask about them while he was making them. However, the one he picks up from closer to his side and holds out to Ren with an expression as overly serious as usual looks very different to those. Largely because instead of the ranunculus he's been using for the other crowns, this one is made from mountain lilies.]

I thought you might show up eventually.

[shadowrevenger]

[Ren is all ready to huff and not-so-seriously whine that if Shun wanted to know that he could have showed him too, when Shun pulls out the one made of lilies and cuts Ren off before he could even get started. Once his surprise has passed, Ren carefully takes the flower crown and looks it over with a fond smile.]

You really spoil me sometimes.

[Not that he's complaining, of course. And after a moment, he starts tugging his hair-tie free so the crown will have an easier time sitting on his head.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That fact doesn't seem to have occurred to Shun, and he blinks seemingly in surprise before his brow furrows a bit. The brief moment of consideration doesn't really change his conclusion any, though, and he frowns slightly at Ren like he still doesn't get it.]

I give you things when they make me think of you. That's not spoiling.

[Mostly Shun just seems a bit unable to reconcile himself with the idea that he'd spoil anyone.]