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]

I switch weapons when I practice. I was just focusing on the polearm because I only really picked it up today. [Lavi taught him the basics last time, but that was about it.

With a slight shrug at the remark on the sword, Shun moves to slip his blade out of the lock and jab at Chikusa. There's not much force behind it - this isn't a practice blade, and even though the polearm drew blood, this one could do a lot more damage.] It shouldn't be a new sight for you.

[It's the same sword he used to kill their serial murderer, after all.]

[kokuyoyo]

No, but it's still weird.

[Besides, Chikusa figures that first time didn't count. He was rather focused on a murderer turning into an ayakashi, keeping Ken from getting blighted, and then going to find something to eat before he went to sleep.]

[At least a sword is more familiar to deal with, and the jab is easy to sidestep when Shun isn't putting as much force into it. Chikusa gives an experimental slash, testing how strong his grip on it is.]

What is it, even...

[revolutionfalcon]

[Despite the lack of force to the strike, Shun's grip is very strong - he parries the slash easily enough, and slips the weapon down for a strike towards where the polearm hit Chikusa before. If nothing else, way back when he'd first started learning sword, being most familiar with blunt force weapons had given him some inclination for high grip strength from the start.]

It's a wakizashi. They're considered useful for indoor fighting. [Which might explain why it's so short - it's barely longer than something like a ruler, and could almost be confused for a large dagger.] I wanted something easily carried and concealed.

[kokuyoyo]

I meant- [Ah, fuck. Chikusa jerks the knife downwards as the sword is aimed at the sensitive area from before, strike meeting strike. He has no illusions about completely blocking it, or even a decent parry, only enough to block it long enough for him to twist out of the way.]

[Letting the momentum carry him, he tries to get closer to drive the knife at Shun's arm.]

The glowing.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Right, that. Shun twirls away from the arm strike in a remarkably graceful motion before just being his pragmatic self and lashing out a kick for Chikusa's knees. This one is as hard as ever, since he doesn't exactly have to worry about injuring Chikusa fatally.]

There's a woman who goes by the Valkyrie who conjured it for me. You'd be better off asking her. [He does have some idea of what it indicates, but she hadn't really gone into detail that he recalls. The weapon's resilience likely has something to do with it.]

[kokuyoyo]

[God damn long legs. Chikusa goes toppling down, not caring about the impact since he doesn't have to care about pain, and instead using the moment to try and return the favor. Come down with him you fuck-]

You always accept weird weapons?

[revolutionfalcon]

[It's close - Shun's expecting some kind of retaliatory move and goes to get out of range even as Chikusa's on his way down. He's not quite fast enough to avoid it entirely, though, and it unbalances one of his legs enough that he has to outright leap back to make sure he has space to recover it. It also means he's not going to be hitting Chikusa again while he's down if he gets up quickly enough.]

I asked her for it. She's under the impression the weapons here aren't suited for practice between gods, since she's actually a god.

[kokuyoyo]

[The best defense is a good offense. Chikusa doesn't waste any time getting up to his feet once again, and dives forward to make another swipe at Shun.]

How?

[revolutionfalcon]

Ask her. I only know as much as she told me. [Which wasn't a great deal, considering Lenneth is about as open as he is. For now, he sidesteps the swipe and goes for one back, diagonally upwards towards Chikusa's chest. Since he can't actually hit without risking doing Chikusa more damage than the already-bleeding wound, he figures he might as well go for things that are awkward or challenging to block to test him.]

[kokuyoyo]

No follow up questions...

[Really, Shun.]

[The knife being as light as it is means he can bring it back rather quickly. Yet it's still not much use to properly block, and... yep, there he goes again. This time, Chikusa lets himself hit the ground, sighing as he does so instead of grunting.]

...I really prefer medium range...

[revolutionfalcon]

It's a summoned weapon that's apparently permanent and what gods use to fight in her world, because it's her job as the Valkyrie to arm them. I didn't need the minutiae.

[Especially considering he'd had the chance to test it as soon as he'd gotten it, so it was hardly a case of handing him a bad weapon to fail in future combat. Shun raises a brow a little as Chikusa goes down again, stepping back in case of a retaliatory strike with his gaze lingering on Chikusa's wound.]

You should do something about that wound. Falling down repeatedly is going to make it worse.

[kokuyoyo]

I know.

[He's familiar enough with the human body to know that all this repeated impact isn't going to be doing him any favors... or all the movement for that matter... Hm. Maybe he should actually get this taken care of before it becomes something even more troublesome to deal with.]

The Heavens should at least be smart enough to have first aid kits around... right...

[revolutionfalcon]

Probably. If they're going to keep weapons around that are sharp enough to wound, they'll have something to fix it with. Or at worst, you'd have to talk to one of Bishamon's shinki.

[Or a healer, of which there's quite a few who should probably be present. But that's more of a last case scenario for a wound that's currently relatively minor.]

[kokuyoyo]

Mm. I guess I should look into that...

[With a sigh, he slowly starts to push himself up. Is that a stain in his shirt? Oh well.]

Getting better at close combat... is going to be such a nuisance.

[revolutionfalcon]

Knives aren't really made to go up against larger weapons. You can make do for a while, but unless you can disarm your opponent, they're likely to have the advantage.

[Bar things like polearms, which are built for extended reach and thus don't have as much of an answer for when someone gets within their range. Something like a sword, though, is always going to be that much more annoying to deal with.]

[kokuyoyo]

....I thought about trying to cut through your fingers.... but that seemed like a bit much...

[Oh, look. He does have some idea of what constitutes proper sparring versus regular old murder attempts. Amazing.]

[revolutionfalcon]

It's not that easy to cut through someone's fingers. [Bones exist, as do people who aren't necessarily going to sit still and let you take your time cutting through their fingers. Shun mostly just sounds exasperated right now, though.]

[kokuyoyo]

Yes, but a successful attempt that hits bone would still make it difficult for most people...

['Most' because there's all sorts of weirdos in the Far Shore. Chikusa knows.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I try not to bank on what "most people" would react to here.

[Shun knows all too many of those weirdos and how obnoxiously powerful they can be. He likes to be certain when he's fighting them, and by certain he means play even dirtier than trying to cut their fingers off.]

[kokuyoyo]

If you don't make some estimate of what you're getting into... then you might as well be doing nothing. Obviously adjust to your opponent, but...

[Finally, with some reluctance, he starts to push himself to his feet. The blood is sticking cloth to skin now.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Adapting to the opponent is what I do first. I'm just not going to make a play like that until I know it's going to work. [The bigger strikes are the riskier ones, and if they fail, it means he either puts himself at a disadvantage or has to re-evaluate his strategy.

While Shun frowns a bit at the obvious clinging of Chikusa's clothes to the blood, he doesn't move to help him up. He does, however, scan for any of the helper shinki nearby so he can ask where they keep the medical supplies.]

[kokuyoyo]

....So would you just stay in a stalemate completely until they made a move...

[just curious u kno]

[At least he's also looking around for someone to harass about first aid.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Not making a bigger move doesn't mean remaining in stalemate forever. [It depends a bit on the opponent's behaviour, too, particularly if they're reckless enough to try and do something of significance so he can react to it.

After a few moments, Shun spots one of the white-robed shinki near the door, and points them out to Chikusa.] Might as well ask them.

[kokuyoyo]

[The rest of this conversation will have to be for another time. As the shinki is pointed out, Chikusa makes a small noise of acknowledgment and immediately starts to shuffle that way.]

[Good thing Shun doesn't care about goodbyes because he's not getting one.]