thenearshore | October Training

October Training

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

the basics of proper god behavior

Shinki Training

informational pamphlets

borderline

Physical Training

soot sprites

far, far away.

Rest and Refreshments

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~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, I won't say I've never dealt for a soul... but I don't have any interest in taking them for myself.

Nor any acquaintance with Hell. Yet.

[Hakkai sets his chopsticks down and folds his hands on his knee, glancing at Dean.]

And I have a similar policy about fights. Where I'm from, there has been a recent... problem, involving waves of negative magical energy. They send youkai berserk, causing them to attack wildly, and to consider humans prey.

It can be resisted, but not easily, and often the only way to deal with a berserk youkai is to kill him. Luckily, this world has no such problems.

I've made deals. I get it. I've seen humans be desperate enough for this or that or some other thing. But still.

As for Hell, I wouldn't recommend it. It's not a fun place to be by any stretch of the imagination. It messes with your head a lot.

[He nods at that.]

Sounds like the kind of thing I'd be working on if it was happening back home. That tends to be the level of stuff I deal with though I'd be finding a way to stop the energy rather than just killing everyone who was under its spell.

The source of the energy is the attempt to resurrect that demon king.

[One eyebrow flicks up as he glances sidelong at Dean, and his tone is mildly affronted. Really. It's as if he thinks Hakkai's sitting at home and killing local youkai when they come into town for lunch.

As for Hell... Hakkai hadn't thought he'd had a choice about that destination, at this late date, but then here he is eating a catered meal in the Heavens: so who can say, really?]

You look surprisingly healthy for a man who has personal experience of Hell.

Sounds familiar.

[Demon king, Lucifer - same difference. At that look though he's shaking his head.] Don't give me that look I'm just stating the obvious ideal solution. I mean, of course, you could always let him be resurrected and put him back down, too. The plan that works isn't always the easiest or the one you'd choose.

[Which yep been there done that.]

Looks are pretty deceptive. Then again I've got - [A pause and his jaw clenches.] I had help. Someone pulled me out of Hell and put me back together.

Yes, well. If we survive to make it to his castle, we'll have to stop it in whatever way we have available at the time.

[Dignifying their... he hates to use words like quest; mission, perhaps -- dignifying it with words like plan is a bridge too far. They don't even know what they'll face inside Hotou Castle, other than a large number of enemies, a homicidal nihilist priest with control of three fundamental sutras, a demon prince who can best any of them except Goku one on one, and also almost certainly their deaths.

That's always been the basic plan, though. Heaven's homicidal emissary might even shift the odds in their favor. He shrugs, after a moment.]

Looks can be deceptive. But I'm sorry to hear that.

[If there's anything worse than damnation, Hakkai thinks, it is damnation followed by having to go back to being yourself afterwards.]

I don't know much about your world or the weaknesses of a demon king or I'd offer advice or suggest weapons. But I don't know anything about your reality's lore. Best I can tell you is religious relics, blessed objects, hell get a priest in your pocket they're always useful.

I mean I lucked out - demon killing knife, the colt, angel blades - people better than me; wiser than me who were willing to die and kill for the greater good, an angel, and some sheer dumb luck.

[Dean exhales softly because for a minute he can see it fall flash in his head in the span of a slow blink.]

Don't be. I was needed and I have a brother to look after. I'd rather be ripped out of Hell and keep what's left of my family alive than be tortured and torture.

[Religious relics, blessed objects, and a priest? Hakkai smiles to himself for a moment. They're well supplied, in that case.]

Well, here, it doesn't do me much good. But I appreciate the offer.

And...

[He falls silent, for a moment, and his face looks as old as Dean's as he considers his lunch tray.]

... that's a good reason.

[He'd have come back from Hell for Kanan in a heartbeat. She'd died, first. Wherever she is now... he had seen her, for a moment, when he didn't remember. It's the reason he needs to understand why they're here, the one he doesn't even dare to let himself think about too hard. He knows what he could do, if he allowed himself to think about that.]

Yeah and you might not remember anything I say when you go back so the point is kinda moot, I'm guessing. Alternate timelines and the like are always tricky.

[He doesn't miss that silence and it's a telling one. This guy - if anyone could - would get it, Dean thinks. This guy has clearly seen and been through some shit; lost important people.]

Whatever happened, however bad it was, you've got my condolences. Not that that changes a damn thing or makes it better but it helps to know someone can kinda understand sometimes. Makes it easier to grit your teeth and keep going - even if you don't always want to.

My sister died a few years ago. [It's brief; all of the surrounding details are... not the sort of thing he tells someone on first acquaintance. Nor, frankly, on longer acquaintance. He breathes out, and continues. Dean seems the sort of person who might, after all, know enough about this topic to share some useful information.]

In early summer, here, a crowd of fresh corpses were animated using other souls trapped in their bodies and forced to attack mortals. Sufficient damage to the corpses seemed to free the souls-- but they were other souls from our worlds, not this one. She was one of them.

[Dean flinched visibly. He's glancing down at his hands, just patiently listen to him. Waiting. He knows it's a hard thing to face and say out loud. Hell, he had his own issues with admitting his own losses.]

That can't have been easy. Facing someone who means something to you in a fight is horrible even more if you've already lost them once. It's bad enough to have lost them once - especially when you wanted nothing more than to protect and keep them safe.

[A pause as Dean carefully finds and picks words as best he can.]

But having to fight them yourself and lose them a second or third time. It's like being gutted. If it helps, even if it looks like them sometimes it's really not them. The things that come back sometimes wear faces familiar and longed for but they're not them.

Not really.

Even if the soul might have been hers, she would likely rather be back in the better place beyond than here causing you pain. Sometimes the lost should never be found and the dead should stay dead.

The corpse was a stranger's, but I'm -- fairly certain the soul was hers.

[He'd seen that flinch, and what Dean's saying... well. It sounds as if he's familiar with that kind of situation.

Hakkai can sympathize. It's practical curiosity that makes him admit this, though, and not a desire for comfort.]

My experience with souls being used to reanimate other bodies is quite different.

[He's silent for a moment, then adds:] But what I'm afraid of is that they might not be free. After all, if those souls were captured once from other worlds....

I understand. Witches from my world they've been known to do something similar.

[Dean gives a hum before raising his shoulders in a shrug.]

Different worlds, different rules. My experience has always been that the soul is likely suffering and can be made to do things they have no wish to. So it's best to handle it.

[Dean arches a brow at that last bit.] Well, it depends on how they were pulled here. It could have been by elder gods, by objects their attached to, the promise of fulfilling unfinished business, or sometimes the souls don't even know they've passed. At least that's how it works at home.

Usually salting and burning or finishing what they left undone is the only real way to help them pass on.

She has -- so far as I know -- been burned.

[He folds his hands very carefully.]

And in any case, what's left of her remains are in another world. But we've been drawn here, too.

[Pause.]

I do suspect the involvement of some god. Perhaps not the gods who hold power in this Heaven, but some god.

Well, it doesn't have to be her body. It could be anything - a book she liked, a toy; spirits are odd. They can even attach to just certain people.

[Dean nods.]

That's true and there's nothing we can do from here to help out there I don't think.

[Those green eyes are fixed Hakkai and he can't help but agree.]

There's definitely something at work here. Though I couldn't name it without some proper investigation and digging into the Lore. I mean I've been tossed into alternate planes before usually through spells or something like that. But most of those had specific purposes this seems totally random.

[People can, indeed, be haunted. The surviving twin brother of Cho Kanan is silent for a long moment. That's not the situation that brought her soul here to be entrapped in a decaying stranger's corpse, he's sure of that much -- or is it? When a haunted soul is brought to another world, where does its ghost go?

He refuses to dwell on this question. It'll drive him mad if he tries. Instead, he smiles distantly, and switches topics.]

I think it's random in its selection of us -- or at least, random, within certain parameters. Age seems to matter, with no one too young or too old appearing. Many of us find familiar faces here with us, so association may play its own part.

As for purpose, though, I think there is a purpose that has more to do with this world than with us. After all, we're replacing gods who once were really here.

Fair enough. I'd be a bit worried if kid kids started showing up or something. I'm already concerned believe me. But you've got a point. Some of us seem to have useful skill sets for this kind of thing. As for familiar faces...

[He nods a faint smile tugging at his lips]

I've ran into someone from back home. It's kind of not great but it's good to see 'em and not be totally alone. Not that he remembers anything.

[That smile falls and Dean lets his face settle into a frown.]

Which begs the question of where the hell did they go? Why'd they abandon their posts?

There are children. A little girl of six and a little boy younger than that-- [And a shinki, which makes guessing his exact age challenging. Kindergarten, or so.]

But no infants or toddlers, which is something.

The gods, I think, are dead.

[It's not just that they've abandoned their temples and the Heavens. It's that their worshipers' prayers are heard by the newcomers, and their power seems to have faded from its old places. They're gone. Only death, or some kind of imprisonment of their souls, could explain such a thing, and imprisonment seems both more logistically challenging and harder to justify.]

... in fact, I suspect our souls are the murder weapons. [He glances over at Dean's frown, and adds:] Old gods, when they are killed, return to life. It's not guaranteed for us, so I don't recommend testing it, but I suspect our souls are interrupting the resurrection of our predecessors.

Kids. Why would... Man, Kids? Kids shouldn't be here. I guess we can be glad for small miracles.

[Though those green eyes are narrowing a bit.]

They're dead? [That would make sense. If they were dead then the world could be pulling in outsiders to try and compensate.] But if they cycle and are reborn why pull us here? Wouldn't it be more of a hindrance to have newbies gumming things up and making things more difficult?

It certainly would be. Furthermore, if gods are reborn, then they can't really be killed, can they?

Anyone who truly wanted them dead would be forced to find a way to interrupt that process.

[So: that's his theory, at least. There's something bringing them here, and if Heaven doesn't know what it is, then the newcomers' presence must be orchestrated by some other force. Some opposing force, perhaps, hoping to take advantage of the confusion and chaos of dozens of newcomers' presence.

Besides... he smiles, faintly.]

And we do cause a fair amount of trouble.

[Dean just rakes his hand over his face with a groan. He's fine being a hunter. He's fine with being trapped in the life/i> but he doesn't want to be used like this.]

So something is trying to stop gods from being reborn by shoving hapless mortals into their roles? And the older other real gods can't figure it out?

[He'd rather be facing Lucifer head on right now than be trapped with this possible clusterfuck. And he wishes he had all the books from the bunker, if he could dig into the lore maybe he'd find something but his temple doesn't have even a fraction of the books and scrolls - just bare basics.]

No joke. [But he's not smiling just crossing his arms biting into one of his skewers.]

Precisely. [No joke, unfortunately. And with their existence, and their continued appearances, posing an ongoing existential threat to the Heavens, Hakkai can't imagine that they aren't trying to discover who's murdering their comrades... if they can.

If the advisers aren't allied with the murderers themselves. Amaterasu hasn't been replaced, after all, even though she had been killed. None of her three closest advisers had been replaced. That alone makes them figures of suspicion.]

I don't know if there's anything we can do to unravel the mystery that they aren't already doing, but I do feel... some motivation to solve it, myself.

Very nearly everyone I know well has been pulled in, though they aren't all still here.

[Dean's sure he and Hakkai are on the same page now and while that's good it's raised more questions than Dean is willing to just sit back and accept.]

I don't know that we can but- we can and certainly should keep our eyes and ears open. I'll hit the books I have though I doubt they'll yield anything very useful.

Maybe they're looking for something? For something - a quality or a skill or something? Something specific? It would explain the ping ponging criteria and strangely eclectic collection of people. No one seems to have anything in common - Species, gender, age, background...

Perhaps, but if so, I don't think they've found it yet.

I suspect, myself, that who we are doesn't matter -- our souls are just the replacements. I've noticed that at least those of us who take the role of gods seem to have some similarities to the gods we're meant to represent.

Which reminds me, I haven't asked which god you are.

[He raises his eyebrows at Dean, curiously.]

Apparently not. As long as they keep pulling people it's safe to assume they're still looking which is likely a bit of good news.

[Dean is tilting his head a bit at that. Well that's possible?]

Dionysus. Which makes sense since I like drinking and wild party nights.

[Hakkai, who had been reaching for his teacup, fumbles it. Dionysus?!

His gaze snaps back to the other man, searching, this time. There is, of course, no resemblance. It's a relief; before, Gojyo and his dark-haired doppelganger had been Dionysus and Liber, two sides of the same coin, as if to reinforce how much it suited his soul. This one, Hakkai thinks, is probably not another incarnation. How many could there be?

And he'd seen plenty of Athenas, of course. He had liked most of them. He isn't one, himself.]

And justice against those who harm the helpless?

[That question he keeps light and teasing. After all, with the conversation they've been having, the answer is obvious.]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject