October Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: September 4th
Where: Meeting Hall, 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.

It seems Bishamon's temple is unavailable this week due to business, although she has generously allowed a number of her shinki to go on with their usual tasks of passing out pamphlets and assisting the newcomers to settle in.

Gods and shinki arriving at heaven's meeting hall are, should they allow it, guided kindly towards a traditional-style dojo and banquet hall towards the back of the meeting hall itself. 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

Newly arrived gods are escorted into a banquet hall for an informational meeting covering the basics of proper god behavior, although the minor deity conducting the meeting is in too much of a rush to take questions afterwards. They are encouraged to discuss the information with each other and ask questions of more experienced gods, as well as instructed to guide their new shinki appropriately.

Shinki Training

Various volunteers are stationed around the dojo, 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. Shinki are encouraged to work together to practice what they've learned and discuss their perspectives.

The garden is available for borderline practice, and a few of the last training's slightly tattered crayon-drawn borderline targets have been brought back out and pinned to bales of straw to make a practice area. One of Amaterasu's shinki is drawing replacements with a large inked calligraphy brush. His targets are simple but elegant, but somehow, before they make it over to the target bales, they're ending up crayon-scribbled into much brighter colors. Maybe it's the child shinki who are in charge of putting them up? They do seem to be giggling a lot, and Amaterasu's artist shinki is looking more and more annoyed...

Physical Training

The dojo is stocked with a wide variety of practice weapons, traditional and modern, to offer some practice opportunity to 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.

There's an additional task that the hosts are more than willing to ask for help with. The Meeting Hall seems to be suffering an invasion of cute soot sprites. Although they're harmless little spirits, they leave smears of ash and soot wherever they go, and the shinki are running themselves ragged trying to keep the hardwood floors and white walls clean! They're handing out cleaning rags and flyswatters to squash the soot sprites flat and scrub the resulting smears away -- and, for the softhearted, butterfly nets: although they implore anyone with a net to be sure they let the soot sprites out again far, far away.

Rest and Refreshments

The meeting hall's facilities are less modernized than Bishamon's: there are rainwater barrels set out by the dojo with fresh towels for hardworking gods and shinki to wash their face and hands. The water is ice cold, so it's very refreshing, too-- brr!

By lunchtime, the banquet hall where the gods' informational session was held has been cleaned out and re-set with cushions to sit on around long, low tables. Gods and shinki who come inside for lunch will be served a plain but hearty meal, with soup, rice, fish and pickled vegetables to refresh them for the afternoon's training.

The hall will stay open even after the lunches and tables have been cleared away, so that those who want a quieter space to talk with their new partners can find somewhere in the room. Hopefully the occasional stampede of soot sprites won't be too distracting.

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
• Help catch soot sprite pests
• Spectate if you want
• Have fun~

Comments

[revolutionfalcon]

Ninja, so similar idea. Weapons adapted from tools are obviously easy to conceal.

[Or carry in plain sight without arousing suspicion, as the case frequently was. He indicates the loop on the other end of it.]

You can also tie a rope to this and use it to anchor something. It's more flexible than most weapons, even if it isn't as good in an actual fight.

[He prefers a standard dagger himself, largely because the throwing part means he has to be carrying a lot more of them on him if he wants to not have to chase down his weapon after every throw.]

[fauxcalibur]

Oh! A ninja weapon!

[Everything he knows about ninja he learned from a single movie, so that makes it all the more exciting, really. You can only learn so much from watching, after all.]

Do you know how to throw them?

[Because that's the way he figures he would make use of them if he were to carry them.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun eyes the weapon for a moment or two before shrugging slightly.] I couldn't show you how, since I haven't used that particular kind of throwing weapon before, but you'd need a no-spin throw on it. The ring makes it harder, but it means lining up your hand so you can propel it without offsetting the weight and making it spin.

[Picking up another one, he holds it in a simple throwing grip as an example.] So something like this wouldn't work, because it's for a spinning throw.

[fauxcalibur]

I see...

[The words in and of themselves don't mean a whole lot to him, but he files them away in his brain anyway. He may be able to figure it out on his own with enough trial and error if he can't find someone more knowledgeable to teach him.]

So all in all, they really aren't an ideal choice for anyone but someone who might need to conceal a weapon.

[revolutionfalcon]

Basically. They're easy to carry and hide, but they're not as strong as a standard knife, and most people aren't going to need to anchor it into something anyway.

[So it's a little outdated, really. Shun puts the one in his hand back, instead reaching to pick up a more standard throwing knife and weigh it in his hand. It might be worth practicing properly with these at some point - his aim is fine, but he's had some trouble getting the spin exactly right.]

This is more like it if you want a decent throwing knife.

[fauxcalibur]

That does look like it could do a little more damage!

[He looks the knife over, though just looking really isn't going to do him any good. It's not like he's ever had to fight anyone whose weapon of choice was a throwing knife.]

Though I suppose there's still a trick to getting it work.

[revolutionfalcon]

There's always a trick to it, but these ones are a little simpler to throw. It's mostly about weight.

[Thankfully, there's a target relatively nearby, though positioned so nobody would be likely to be throwing anything at the weapons area. Weighing the knife in his hand, Shun holds the blade with two fingers on one side of the blade and his thumb on the other and throws it. It spins several times before landing in the bulls-eye at a bit of an angle.]

I'm still not that used to the spin, so I've had trouble getting them to land straight.

[fauxcalibur]

I see!

[Saber watches the whole process with interest, trying to take in every detail. He's always learned best by watching and it seems like he's gotten even better at it since arriving here.]

So like this?

[He picks up another knife and mimics the way Shun held it, then takes a moment to check his aim and throws it at the target. It doesn't hit quite as close to the bulls-eye, but it's still successful.]

Ah! It looks like I might figure it out with a little more practice!

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun watches the attempt closely - it's difficult to throw a knife so wildly off that it risks hitting anyone else, but he still likes to be sure. It seems like he didn't have much to worry about here, though, and he nods as the knife sinks home in the target.]

Looks like. It's a lot about the motion with knives, since they're usually heavy enough to stay their course.

[So once you get the trajectory down, you don't generally have to factor for wind like with arrows or whatever else.]

If you've already almost got it, it's probably worth honing it a bit. Being able to throw something like that accurately is hardly a useless skill.

[fauxcalibur]

Very true! They may not be able to fly the sort of distance an arrow or a crossbow bolt can, but they're much easier to carry around!

[He's already looking for different kinds to try out, chattering happily to himself.]

And they're a little like a sword, after all, so I could...

[He holds one out as if he's about to Excaliblast something.

This whole knife thing is probably not a good idea for anyone who has to deal with him...]

[revolutionfalcon]

They're also not only usable as a projectile. [Arrows and bolts do definitely have their advantages as projectiles, but a knife can be used as a melee weapon as well. As someone who favours flexibility, Shun can't help but appreciate that fact.

Shun doesn't quite know what he's doing when he holds it out, though, so he mostly just looks from him to the weapon with a faintly incredulous look.]

Could what? [He's not entirely sure he should ask, but it can't be any worse than some of the other conversation tangents he's run into in his time here.]

[fauxcalibur]

Ah! Sorry, I was speaking to myself! It's gotten to be a habit.

[Because he's used to having someone around to respond, but that takes more of an explanation than can be easily inserted into the other explanation he has cued up.]

Call it a bit of a conceit, but any weapon I hold is, to me, Excalibur.

[Something he feels doesn't need to be explained.]

In life, it was merely an affectation, but as a Servant it's become a bit closer to reality. I can send forth a beam of holy light from any weapon I hold! Though...

[He looks a little sheepish.]

I did almost destroy a theater that way, so I need to take care not to be so reckless.

[Will he? No.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That definitely sounds like a lot of a conceit, and it doesn't really help that he then starts going on about details that Shun doesn't really have any idea about. So he mostly just gives him a lengthy, rather dry look as he explains himself.]

I have no idea what you mean by "Servant". And that's a ridiculously specific conceit to have, especially if you're that reckless about it.

[Shun and tact have not been on speaking terms for a while, and this guy sounds to him like the kind who could use an extremely direct talking-to.]

[fauxcalibur]

[You're not wrong, Shun

Saber hangs his head a little, chastened.]

You speak the truth. I really am too reckless for my own good and it's caused no end of trouble for others in the past.

[As honest as he is about it, somehow these things never seem to change.]

I speak a bit too freely as well, it seems. There are others like myself here, but I shouldn't assume everyone knows about the nature of Servants. I could explain if you like!

[It seems that he's the sort of person who will keep talking as long as he has an audience.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun notes the "others like myself" - presumably others from this guy's world, though it's not as if he'd be the first to have those. And while he's loath to take the offer considering he feels like this guy will just go on about it for as long as he can, he likes to know as much about the other worlds represented here as he can find out. So with a slight sigh, he shrugs a little.]

As long as you don't take an unnecessarily long time with it, it could be useful to know. [Especially if he will or has encountered those others. Learning about the connections between people here can often explain things he hadn't understood about them before, like all those reapers coming from a particular world.]

[fauxcalibur]

[It's not too difficult to make the explanation itself brief. After all, he was never particularly knowledgeable about magecraft himself, so there aren't to many tangents he can find to distract himself.]

As I understand it, when a person of great renown passes, some part of their being is transported to the Throne of Heroes and they become what is known as a Heroic Spirit. Most would say their entire soul comes to rest in the Throne, but I'm not certain I believe that.

[It would be impossibly sad, he feels, though perhaps not for everyone. Many don't expect to see Heaven.]

Heroic Spirits are beings of great power that humans could never hope to summon in their true form, so the mages who devised what is called the Holy Grail War came up with a way to summon what is essentially an echo of them. A "Servant" is, more or less, a vessel for a Heroic Spirit, a way for them to manifest in the mortal realm again. We're really only copies of the real thing, an echo as I said, so if you were to summon the same Servant twice, they would have no memories of the times they were summoned before.

[He pauses.]

Does that make sense or am I rambling? My class as a Servant is Saber, certainly not one you would find a mage summoned as.

[revolutionfalcon]

[If nothing else, Shun listens attentively, if rather impassively despite his confusion. It's a strange thing to hear, but he's heard stranger in his time here, and he's at least familiar with the concept of holding a soul, and summoning an assistant.

When he pauses, Shun's only frowning slightly in thought, but he shrugs slightly.]

It makes as much sense as anything else I've heard here. Basically, it sounds like summoning help from a powerful lingering soul without actually summoning the soul itself.

[So an "echo", like he said, or maybe just some kind of manifestation of it. Shun is no mage either, and his world was actually remarkably mundane, so he's just going for what he can understand relatively easily here.]

[fauxcalibur]

Essentially! Though I'm not certain our souls actually linger. Though, as I said, it's not really something I know a great deal about. I was, after all, a Christian in life. Much of this is very difficult for me to wrap my head around.

[It's like he can't resist just slipping in the unnecessary autobiographical information.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I'd given up on the idea of gods before I came here. Though even people who believe in them in this country wouldn't have as much trouble as you. [Shinto is definitely not a single-god system. As it is, though, Shun would consider this a bit of a stretch even taking the variety of gods that fall under that banner into account.]