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

[priforprince]

[ That may not have occurred to Ken, but it sure does occur to Hibiki. Who flinches away as if she'd just been stung. ]

Sentence enders are poisonous.

[ ....so, really, she had. ]

[junkyarddog]

Words can't be poisonous, that's dumb. [Ken scoffs.] Besides, it doesn't bother anybody else. [And a thought strikes Ken, and he points a triumphant, clawed finger at Hibiki.] You're allergic.

[He seems both pleased with himself at having realized this, and like he thinks it's kind of hilarious.]

[priforprince]

What?!

[ This

this dog

this filthy, presumptive dog -

has just done something Hibiki cannot believe!

He's used a multisyllabic word! ]

[junkyarddog]

You're allergic! Like people are allergic to dogs. Lots of people are fine with dogs, but people who are allergic have a bad reaction to 'em, right? So that's like you and byon. [He really only used it as a contextual part of the sentence, but 'byon' did technically end the sentence, so...that may accidentally trigger Hibiki. It really depends on how particular her complex is about how sentence enders are used.]

[priforprince]

[ ...It's. Not as bad as if it'd been used as a sentence ender, but the word still sends ants down Hibiki's spine. She closes her eyes, as if that will make it better. Somehow. ]

....No respect for elegant sensibilities. Spare me.

[ Both your theory and your byon. ]

[junkyarddog]

[Ken grins, with something a little like smugness.] Elegant's just another word for fragile.

[Ken's at least taking pains not to send Hibiki into paroxysms of revulsion, but clearly he doesn't see any need to handle her temper with kid gloves.]

[priforprince]

Sensitivity to sentence enders is a mark of sophistication.

[ You don't even know that much...

Even when you're being considerate, you're exhausting. ]

[junkyarddog]

Tch, you're sensitive to everything. [Ken rolls his eyes.] I bet you don't even like gum.

[He says this as though anyone who doesn't like gum is clearly deranged.]

[priforprince]

...It'd wear out my jaw.

[ A performer's body is their lifeblood. Everything is for the stage. ]

[junkyarddog]

See? Elegant sucks if it means you can't like gum.

[That sure is some kind of logic.]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki smirks and waves aside this objection. ] Such mindless pastimes are meaningless to me.

[ You obviously only enjoy chewing gum because that activity doesn't require a brain. ]

[junkyarddog]

[Ken frowns at her, with the expression of someone trying to work out a complex equation.]

...you can only do one thing at a time?

[Ken's never seen the need to stop doing other things just because he's chewing gum. Is Hibiki...not capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time? Is that a thing that literally happens to people?]

[priforprince]

How do you reach these deluded conclusions?

[ "Hi, pot," says a possessed kettle somewhere. "Have you noticed what color you are recently?" ]

[junkyarddog]

I've never heard someone call chewing gum a pastime before... [He only just catches the byon, but he's being pretty good about it today.] Like...nobody actually does it as an activity. You can just do it while you're doing other stuff, right?

So...it kinda sounds like you think it's some kinda hobby, or something you do to pass the time...which is weird. [He squints at Hibiki.] Have you ever had gum before?

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki snorts. ] I don't chew cud.

[ That would be her butler. ]

[junkyarddog]

...you know it's candy, right? Like, do you know what gum is?

[To be entirely fair, there's a bit of a cultural divide going on here. Ken is referring specifically to Japanese gum - which is a very chewy candy, but one that dissolves with time due to obnoxious chewing being considered crude in Japanese culture. (Ken himself isn't Japanese and could care less about crudeness, but he developed a specific love for the Japanese candy once they relocated to Japan.)

The kind of gum Ken is thinking of, and the kind of gum Hibiki is thinking of, aren't too similar to each other, even if they're called by the same name. As it happens, though, Ken's got a simple solution for this.

He digs into a pocket and pulls out a half-eaten pack of gum(pineapple-flavored), pulls out a stick, and thrusts it at Hibiki.] Here! You don't get to say you don't like something if you haven't tried it, stupid!

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki recoils from the gum as if Ken'd just pulled a centipede from his pocket, or something. If his hand gets too close to her face, she'll try to knock it away with the back of her hand. ]

Ridiculous! I know all I need!

[junkyarddog]

You don't know what flavor it is. [Ken's just being petty now.] Not knowing stuff isn't elegant, b - [He just catches himself again. This is so much work.]

[priforprince]

[ Good on him for stopping. She'd tensed, fearing the worst. ]

Is the flavor even relevant?

[junkyarddog]

Yeah, 'cause you might like it. [Ken huffs and waves it at her.] Try it, or -

[Inspiration hits.]

- or I'll say it! [TRIUMPH.]

[priforprince]

The likes of gum aren't important enough for blackmail!!

[ SHE IS AFRAID AND OFFENDED ]

[junkyarddog]

Not trying a piece of candy isn't worth me using a sentence ender either, is it? [Ken's radiating wicked glee. He knows he's won this.]

1/3

[priforprince]

You......

[ A cold sweat breaks out on Hibiki's face as she grits her teeth. ]

2/3

[priforprince]

[ But then, a thought occurs to her.

A thought which has her smirking and standing up taller. ]

3/3

[priforprince]

Very well.

[ Hibiki's face turns impassive. She lifts her headphones, still hanging around her neck, and slides them into place in one swift movement. Thunk.

Her bangs, but nothing else, bob from the motion. ] I tire of this conversation. Do as you will.