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

[letteropener]

Oh, absolutely. And don't even get me started about when you're expecting chocolate a0nd you get carob. I ought to make it illegal.

[She's joking. About the latter part. It's still an abomination.]

[kokuyoyo]

....It doesn't sound like that big of a deal.

[But then, he's not entirely sure what carob is.]

[letteropener]

Maybe it isn't. But the big deals aren't worth complaining about.

[Oh look, it's inscrutable pony logic!]

[kokuyoyo]

....Aren't they worth complaining more about?

[What is pony logic]

[letteropener]

No, they're worth doing something about.

[Pony logic nothing. This is Princess Celestia logic.]

[kokuyoyo]

....Can't you do both?

[Because if not, Chikusa's entire approach to life might be in jeopardy.]

[letteropener]

Well, you could, but complaining doesn't actually accomplish anything, you know. If you want to actually get something done, you're better off actually devoting your energy to making the change.

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa falls silent as he thinks about that. Smart use of energy, of which he is always threatening to run out of, is something he should keep in mind, but...]

...Complaining seems easier.

[letteropener]

Of course it's easier. But it changes nothing. If something is important enough to change, then you put your effort to changing it.

[kokuyoyo]

....It's so tiresome... and there's always people who will whine about how you do it... Refusing to go outside their own boundaries, or points of view.

[Chikusa stop thinking about murder-]

[letteropener]

That's true. But that doesn't stop it from being worth doing, does it?

[Not that murder is involved in Celestia's thoughts, but two thousand years of engineering a nation towards harmony have put her through every difficulty one can imagine in doing so. Narrowminded obstinate thickheadedness is familiar territory for her.]

[kokuyoyo]

[Curse you, logical pony. Chikusa fall silent for a moment, nibbling on his cookie.]

....I guess not.

...I still like complaining....

[letteropener]

There is a time and place for complaining, definitely. But also a time and place for action. It all depends on what you truly wish to achieve.

[kokuyoyo]

So there's always a time for complaining about raisin cookies...?

[Considering. You know.]

[letteropener]

Oh, absolutely. It would be unwise to actually do something about them, no matter how tempted I might occasionally be to ban them.

[kokuyoyo]

I don't think you could ban them.... Here, at least.

....Although that means your followers might leave them at your shrine...

[letteropener]

No, but I certainly could have done so in Equestria. But that would have been a bad idea... so I complain instead of acting.

[kokuyoyo]

Why? It sounds like you have power...

[Is this going to end up related to their dressing room talk..]

[letteropener]

Those who use their power to satisfy nopony but themselves deserve no power whatsoever.

[Look, she's just telling it like it is. If he's going to keep getting into deep philosophy, she's just going to keep delivering it.]

[kokuyoyo]

Why?

[Chikusa knows he seems to have his reasons for why, although he knows better than to ponder why those reasons exist, but... It's different hearing it from someone who actually possesses it.]

[letteropener]

Because power should only come to those who earn it, by being worthy of it.

This is, of course, not always true. Some beings have simply been given power by nature or birthright, and some take it by force. But the truth is, those beings cannot ever stand for long against power that is true, earned, and deserving.

[kokuyoyo]

Sounds fake.

[Just. Just right there at it. Alright. Chikusa fiddles with his glasses some more.]

Some people who have power and use it for their own ends over others... They can keep going for year... Centuries, by passing it down to only a select few. Saying otherwise.... Seems like a fairy tale.

[letteropener]

I did not say it was easy, nor that those who claim power can always be so simply stopped. But it is nonetheless true that their power is always weaker than the truly greatest magics of all... if one can simply learn to use that magic properly.

Many do not.

[kokuyoyo]

[Wait- Chikusa pauses, having the feeling that he's been left behind somewhere with the conversation having taken a strange twist.]

....Why are you talking about magic now?

[letteropener]

Because, all things being equal, the most powerful magics of all are what inevitably lead to the fall of those who do not understand them, whether directly or indirectly.

[It's a straight line from point A to point B in this conversation for her!]