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

[hunterofsorts]

True.

[But he means it differently than Shun likely takes it. He means literally there's not any room for anything else; the risk is too much. It's not about are you suited it's are you willing to sacrifice everything for total strangers who'll never know? But let's not dig into that right now. Dean's wounds are too fresh and he's just not ready to even clean that gash out yet. So he's gonna let it lie - and lie.]

At least I have some semi-familiar territory here. [He clenches his bloodied hand and jaw for a moment and a muffled hiss of 'shit' escapes.] I suppose I'll have to find my shinki then whoever that might be. So they gotta be here right? Somewhere in this bunch of folks?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Regardless of how he takes it otherwise, Shun can certainly take a hint on when someone doesn't want to continue a conversation, so he leaves that subject alone. It's not exactly one he wants to press on too much himself, considering how often he's hurt people in the attempt to help others.

While Shun's gaze rests on Dean's injuries for a moment, he also leaves that be. Dean strikes him as the kind of person who'd react the same way he does to unwanted help.]

Right. You'll know them when you see them, because you'll see how they died. Usually that happens when you name them, but with new arrivals it's different. It's one way to guarantee you'll find each other, at least.

[There's a somewhat dry and bitter note to Shun's tone at that. He's seen a few deaths by this point, but the first was probably still the worst of them.]

[hunterofsorts]

Wait.. so you're saying I'm going to just look at someone and see how they died?

[He's not as disturbed as most people would be. He's used to death it's all around him and he leaves it in his wake often times. But still death is a personal thing and Dean respects that - well as much as he can.]

Thanks for the heads up on that. I would have been pretty freaked out otherwise.

[The last thing he expected would be to meet someone and then see them covered in blood dropping dead or something. Doesn't sound like a pleasant experience.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Yes. [No reason to sugarcoat it, really. That's just going to make something like that worse when it happens anyway. Though Shun doesn't sound terribly pleased about it, there's a detached note to his voice that says he's likely used to it.] Sometimes it's just the death, sometimes you get a bit of what led up to it as well. And shinki are never supposed to know we see how they died, apparently.

[It's slightly odd to him, given they know full well they are dead, but after finding out what happens when shinki are told about their pasts, he's much more inclined to not press too hard on the whys.]

I just figure it's better to know in advance so you can conceal the reaction better.

[hunterofsorts]

Well, I'll be braced for that then. Thanks for the head's up. That's actually really nice of you.

[Dean pauses. He remembers that when he looked down into his phone he'd seen a familiar name.] They know they're dead but they can't know anything - That makes absolutely no sense but I can deal I think. I'm used to this kind of thing... well kind of. Eh, I'll manage.

[revolutionfalcon]

It's fair warning. I'm not going out of my way. [There's a particular curt note to his voice at that. He doesn't like being called nice for minor things, especially not by people he's only jut met, nor being thanked.

Shun shrugs a little, though it's in a somewhat exasperated manner.] A lot of things here don't make sense, but worse things happen if people try to get around them. You'll adjust the longer you're here, anyway, especially if you already have experience with weird things.

[hunterofsorts]

Didn't say you were. It's just some people'll let the new guy flounder around on his own. It's a dick move but it happens.

I think I get it. No telling old friends or my Shinki a thing about anything I know then. Gotacha. [When Shun mentions being experienced with weird things Dean snorts. Honestly, this is the least weird thing in his life which says a lot.] Oh good. It'll be just like home then. Mostly. I'll be alright.

[revolutionfalcon]

People who do that don't understand that it creates more problems in the long run. [Shun just shrugs, like he can't help the behaviour of idiots. Even if he doesn't go out of his way to inform people, he does it so he doesn't have to deal with the inevitable fallout of people not knowing what's going on later.]

This isn't anything like the world I came from, but I've been here five months, so it's familiar to me now. If you're already calling it "just like home", I don't doubt you'll have an easier time of it than a lot of people.

[Then again, that sort of thing is very much subjective, and it depends a lot on how much he's left behind. But in terms of how this world works, he has a step up, from the sound of things.]

[hunterofsorts]

People as a collective are kind of dumb on a massive scale. You get a few individuals that are not so lacking in common sense - you know rare ones.

Yeah, well back home was kind of crazy. This looks like it'll be a vacation if I'm honest. I mean sure training with someone I don't know is gonna be a pain in my ass but the rest of it seems pretty standard.

[Besides he's got to learn about this place and figure it out before he can bust out and find his way home to Sam so he can help with this Jack thing. In the meantime Sammy can handle it. He's sure of it.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I can agree with that much. [Shun sounds somewhat exasperated with the whole thing, really. In his experience, a substantial portion of people are either easily led or outright bad, even if this place seems to have a higher margin of people with a reasonable amount of sense.

Shun eyes him off a little at his description of home compared to this, but again, he doesn't press, merely nodding slightly.] I'd say the same about this compared to where I came from. It gets challenging sometimes, but it's not as consistently bad as home. So you sound like you should be able to deal with it fine.

[There's a slight note of bitterness there at the end - it's hardly his home dimension's fault it's so bad now, but that's just how things are.]