December Training

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: September 25th
Where: Bishamon's temple, the Far Shore
Summary: Training and informational sessions for newly arrived gods and shinki



Gods and shinki arriving at heaven's meeting hall are, should they allow it, guided to Bishamon's temple, where a reception area and a traditionally styled dojo and training ground have been made available for the day. 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 Western-styled reception hall within Bishamon's temple 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 shinki volunteers, both in the white-and-gold of Amaterasu's shinki and in Bishamon's red-piped black uniforms, are stationed around the dojo, passing out helpful informational pamphlets. They will be happy to instruct the newcomers in the use of the borderline as well as offering an explanantion 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.

Someone has brought two overflowing boxes of back issues of From Ama, the Heavenly magazine, which includes profiles of successful shinki and gods, historical tidbits, and the occasional magazine quiz to help shinki determine how well they're currently working with their god or what their greatest strength might be.

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.

This month, a clever shinki magician has created a dozen straw-stuffed training dummies, some with sword-length sticks and some with polearm-length sticks, that have been enchanted to really fight back. Unfortunately, the spell isn't perfect yet! They're good training partners, but sometimes they might go a little haywire and try to smack passersby.

Rest and Refreshments

Along with bottled water, there are several large boxes of energy drinks and vitamin drinks in small amber glass bottles, and an array of protein bars and meal bars. One particular shinki in white, a bespectacled twentysomething man, is explaining the health benefits of everything on the table (even the water!) with great enthusiasm to any guest who looks even a little confused. It takes great tact to discourage him.

Party games have been set up on the lawn near the refreshments table: Twister, Kubb, lawn Jenga, and more.

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
• Play some games
• Spectate if you want
• Have fun~

Comments

[all_seeing_eye]

Oh.

[That's... not the reaction she expected either. She just blinks for a moment before responding.]

Uh... thanks, then.

[Awkward.]

So what's your name?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun gives a quietly irritated sound at the thanks, but answers the question without trouble.] Kurosaki Shun. Nekhbet when I'm working as a god. I assume you're not Theia anymore, since that name didn't come back into the list.

[It's useful to know the god names people go by for the sake of identifying them on the BBS, if nothing else.]

[all_seeing_eye]

[Hey, credit where credit's due.]

Shun. Okay. And nope. This time it's Yog-Sothoth. Somebody in Heaven must have a weird sense of humor.

[revolutionfalcon]

It's Kurosaki. [The correction is almost automatic by this point, and very flat neutral, considering how often he gets people trying to use his first name immediately.] Haven't heard of that god, but then, there's a lot that show up that are obscure or bizarre for anyone to be worshipping these days.

[all_seeing_eye]

...Kurosaki, then.

[Sure, she doesn't mind.]

Obscure and bizarre is right. Look him up sometime.

[revolutionfalcon]

I'll get around to it. [Shun's not overly interested in mythology, but he does like to at least have the general idea of the gods people he knows are representing. Some of them are wildly-off base, but some of them can fit a little too well when he learns more.]

Anyway, from how you reacted to that thing, I'm guessing you don't usually fight. You should keep away from the actual sparring areas here - as well as those dummies, there's the occasional violent idiot who doesn't really care who they're starting a fight with.

[all_seeing_eye]

[Futaba groans a bit, shaking her head.]

You could tell, huh? Yeah, I'm definitely more of a support type.

[revolutionfalcon]

You learn to tell the difference after a while. It just means you have a different place.

[Considering how the Resistance in his world functioned, Shun's not nearly naive enough to think that the "support type" isn't useful in its own way.]

[all_seeing_eye]

Oh yeah, I'm comfortable with that role. No problem there.

[She smiles, pushing up her glasses.]

[revolutionfalcon]

I'll warn you now that it can be hard to avoid doing at least a little fighting on the front lines. We get ayakashi incursions often enough to be a problem.

[How she chooses to handle that is up to her, but he feels he should at least provide the information so she can actually expect that possibility.]

[all_seeing_eye]

No worries, I'm used to it.

[Definitely not worried, for whatever reason.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Then you should be fine, assuming that's not just talk. But ayakashi are a lot less likely to leave an opening than a malfunctioning target.

[Shun glances down at the fallen straw dummy, considering how easily it had gotten to Futaba earlier. He has his doubts about her attitude.]

[all_seeing_eye]

[Hey, it caught her by surprise!]

I'm sure I'll figure it out. Plus, that's what shinki are for, right? To help us fight.

[revolutionfalcon]

Right. It depends on what form they take how easily they'll be able to do that, though.

[And there's no guarantee she'll get a shinki that's either a combatant or has a useful form for fighting with.]

[all_seeing_eye]

I guess I should go find my shinki and work on that, then.

[Sadly, she'll just get a soulless one.]

[revolutionfalcon]

If you haven't met them yet, you might as well. [At least she won't have to actively hunt them down like back before they had these things.]

[all_seeing_eye]

Yeah. Anyway, thanks for the info.

[She can at least say that much.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[That makes Shun shrug a little, turning to go back to his training. After a moment, he pokes the blade of his naginata into the fallen dummy so he can drag it along with him.]

The quicker basic information like that spreads, the less ignorance is around. I'm sure you can find me if you have any more questions.

[And with that, and no form of polite goodbye, he starts to walk off, the straw effigy sliding along the ground behind.]