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

[killsthebuddha]

[God Training]
[ Genjo Sanzo, 31st of China, has had enough of gods. Gods sent him on his journey. Gods tried to murder him. Gods swept him up and tried to play pretend that he was, in fact, going to be a god himself. Patience entirely exceeded by the sheer absurdity of this concept, he’s not going to play along with it. It’s not worth trying to make sense of right now.

So when they’re encouraged to talk among themselves, Sanzo’s headed out. ]

Goddamn bullshit is what this is. [ The words carry, sounding about as rough and dire as his mood was right then. It probably doesn’t help that he’s not at his best at the moment, not the steadiest after having gotten the worse end of an encounter with a war god not long before this new farce began. ]

[Rest & Refreshments]
[ Sanzo keeps to himself outside, off out of the way, sitting with his back to an ornamental statue, keeping line of sight on the refreshments. He’s decidedly out of sorts and looking altogether disreputable- there’s still blood on his robe, even- for the priest that he is or the god he’s been told he’s supposed to be, glaring at everyone in a way that had to be purposely intended to ward people off.

If his idiot team ended up here, this is where he’s going to end up catching sight of the bastards. Even bad food would lure Goku into its orbit, and probably Gojyo, too. Hakkai, if he wasn’t already with the others, would probably just turn up with some passive aggressive insult whenever he damn well pleased at some inconvenient time. (Who knew what happened with Sharak and her people. Had they been caught up in whatever this was, too?)

When his team finally does show their faces, he decides, he’s going to shoot them for being so much trouble. ]

god training!

[horthath]

You're telling me. This whole thing is just a crock of shit.

[ Such harsh words from a tiny thing of ruffles and ribbons, too.

She was in the middle of an Important Thing, heaven. A Thing that might change the fate of the world and an idiot was all that was left to take care of it! But alas, here she is forced to play nice until they find a way to send her home. ]

Good to know I'm not the only one who thinks it.

[killsthebuddha]

[ Once upon a time, Genjo had been a tiny blond thing with a mouth that was entirely incongruous to his appearance. Fewer ribbons, admittedly, but he can appreciate an honest assessment of the situation. He pulls out his Marlboros as he nods his head to the girl in passing. ]

It’s not hard to see that much.

[horthath]

[ See? They already have something in common. She doesn't comment on the cigarettes. If the guy wants to light up, she's not gonna stop her. ]

Yeah. They're all polite and pleasant when you first get here then all of a sudden, you're on your own. We're not even allowed to go home.

[ A soft scoff. ]

So what's your story?

[killsthebuddha]

Same story as everyone else. I’ve got something to do elsewhere, and these bastards have interrupted it.

[ There’s a certain undertone that the something to do is more like ‘someone to kill.’ He’s not in the most charitable mood here, clearly. ]

R&R

[bartenderizing]

[ Well, he knew the look of those robes, and that the blood probably meant that whomever this was, they're probably still in bad shape. Going by to grab some of the water while dismissing the person explaining all those benefits to what was on the table by saying he knew already, he looked over at the other blond. ]

You look like shit, or that you need a smoke.

[ From what he knew, priests that had those kinds of things on them smoked, swore and liked to carry guns. What he didn't know was who else he could possibly want to meet up with. ]

By the way... If you know and are looking for Sharak, she's listed as Aditi in your phone.

[killsthebuddha]

[ It’s a perfectly normal first impulse to want to pull out a gun and threaten to shoot a stranger in the face, though it’s one narrowly averted more because he hadn’t expected the second sentence. So when he reaches in his robe, he bypasses his gun and withdraws a pack of Marlboros instead. He’s more short-tempered than usual, but he’s also suddenly keenly interested. ] —Aditi, is it? [ He doesn’t immediately move to check his phone, watching warily. ] And who the hell are you? [ He wasn’t one of Sharak’s people, that much he knew. ]

[bartenderizing]

[ It's probably a better sign of him knowing Sharak by the fact that his eyes were keenly watching the hand that Sanzo reached into his robes, only looking away when it turned out to be a pack of cigarettes. After seeing what Sharak's impulse can be, he's gotten a little wary. ]

A mix of sort-ofs. Sort of a student; sort of a friend; sort of a pain in the ass, I guess, as of late. The name's Shizuo.

[ Sort of, and somehow, a better tempered and gun-free surrogate to others here. ]

There's some other people here from your world, but I figured of them all, you'd know Sharak more than the others. Cuz of the whole... priest thing.

R&R

[discerp]

[It's the blood on his robes that gets her attention, though it doesn't look like he's too terribly injured right now. Maybe. Probably?

She's got a black nurse's bag with her and her usual nursing uniform, there's still the bandages covering her leg and arm-- She at least sorta looks the part of a professional, and it takes all she can to remind herself she is. And therefore, approaching the scary priest is A-okay!

Even if his glare freezes her mid-step.] E-eep! [For half a second she contemplates just falling over and showing her belly, for lack of a better term, in the hopes he doesn't rip her throat out. It's a hard inner battle between her desire to treat someone and her desire to diffuse tense situations by drawing the attention on her or weird poses.

In the end, the desire to help wins out and she continues the stepping motion, holding her bag in front of her and attempting to speak.] C-c-c-- [Attempting.

Mikan swallows hard, squeezes her eyes shut, and blurts out in a rush:] Pl-please let me tend to your injuries! [Fearful of his reaction, she doesn't open her eyes and just brings her shoulders up in a preemptive defensive flinch as if to prepare herself for a blow.]

[killsthebuddha]

[ What the fuck...?

Sanzo isn’t unaccustomed to people stammering and obviously terrified to speak to him, but it’s usually after he’s fired off a warning shot or four. For a long moment, he can’t decide how he should respond. He settles on being decidedly exasperated. ]

What the hell’s wrong with you? [ Not that he really wants her to answer that. ]

[discerp]

[A question that neither of them have the time for an answer for. It'd take too long.

She lowers her arms and blinks at him.] Y-you, um... You looked really mad, but... Your injuries are pretty bad, r-right? So, um... So... I-I'm a nurse, so... I c-can't just leave someone alone if they need tending to.

Pl-please forgive me, you're free to h-hit me all you want after I'm done, but, um... But... Please let me help you!

Sanzos don't get rest or refreshments

[bussounoshima]

[What they do get- while hanging around outside, minding their own business, generally being antisocial and disreputable- is trouble.

Sharak's late. It's been a rough couple of weeks and she's late. Normally she makes sure to turn up for these things, to look around and make sure no one needs her help. If anyone she's hoping to see- or anyone she's hoping not to see- turns up here, this is where they'll be first and Sharak wants to make sure she finds them before anything happens. But she's been disappointed so many times recently and, again, it's been a rough few weeks, that she almost decides to skip it.

She's glad she didn't. Sharak steps out from around the statue Genjo is leaning against, pulling out her pistol and pointing it at the side of Genjo's head. Her face and glare are as serious as always as she stares him down to see his response.]

[killsthebuddha]

[ Sanzo knows a rough time himself lately, and he’s on a hair trigger right then. He’s entirely aware of a presence coming up on him from around the statue, though he only gives that fact away when he draws his revolver in a flurry of white cloth. He’s aimed with his finger on the trigger even before he looks over at her sidelong. As he searches her face, there’s only the faintest tremor in his arm.

He apparently decides that he sees whatever he’s looking for. The tense line of his arm starts to relax after a long moment, and his expression eases to something more neutral.

Damn, it’s far more a relief to see her than he wants to admit. ]

[bussounoshima]

[Sharak stares down the gun and the man behind it for a long moment. When he relaxes, she does too. Apparently she saw what she was looking for too.]

Genjo Sanzo. [Pulls her gun back and smiles.] You took your time.

gods training!

[kagenonadeshiko]

Tell me about it.

[Getting Ayumu to leave the temple had taken steady, repetitive prodding by her junior shinki for over the course of two days. She's not exactly thrilled to be here herself. She's not even supposed to be in this section but here she is anyway, sitting off to the sidelines with a stack of From Ama magazines and a pencil.

Ayumu looks up from the current god-and-shinki compatibility quiz she's been glaring at with her good eye while decisively writing down her own answers. She manages a cordial smile that doesn't quite mask her displeasure at being here.]

Everything about this situation is stupid.

[killsthebuddha]

[ There’s a certain familiarity in the woman’s way about her. He knows that kind of smile that barely represses what is probably a need to do violence to really get frustration out of their system. He also tends to, by default, be naturally wary of it.

But not so wary that he’s not going to get information where he can. He eyes her, half-curious. ]

Tch, is that the voice of experience?

[kagenonadeshiko]

Unfortunately.

[Ayumu sighs heavily, turning the page in her magazine.]

They're not very competent here. I think the pamphlets are supposed to help but they don't. Hopefully, the magazines will.

[Ayumu points to her rather large stack.]

I haven't read them but maybe there's something useful in there somewhere.

[reformedsinner]

[Passive-aggressive insults are one option on the table. On the other hand-- as dire as the situation here is, Hakkai finds himself momentarily speechless with relief on seeing a familiar shaggy blond haircut and an equally familiar poisonous glare.

Sharak is reliable, of course, but he doesn't know her. Genjo Sanzo, by now, he knows.

And with no way home, no useful memories of this place, Gojyo not speaking to him as a result of the world's most belated moral qualms, and no obvious path of action, Hakkai can admit that a known and trusted leader is exactly what he needs.

He swipes one of the vitamin drinks from the table and heads towards Sanzo, offering it on an open palm.

In a helpful tone:]

It's supposed to promote healing.

[killsthebuddha]

[ Someone has to take responsibility for the never-ending bullshit parade that was their journey west. He’s already managed to get himself fired. This is just another detour, for all that he still needs time to figure out what the hell he’s supposed to do now to continue the journey.

Whatever it is, it involves killing the fuckers behind this. With a muffled grunt, low enough that it doesn’t carry, he forces himself on his feet. For now, though, he just eyes Hakkai’s approach with suspicion.

No, not his approach— his suspicion is entirely for the drink he has in hand. ]

Sounds like an excuse for it to taste like shit. [ But he accepts it anyway. It takes more effort to be difficult than he has energy for. Pretending a good percentage of his body isn’t cooked medium rare is enough as it was. ]

[reformedsinner]

I'm afraid I haven't tasted it myself.

[It's almost guaranteed to taste like shit. Hakkai doubts the aspirational "Delicious mocha flavor!" recommendation on the side of the label.

The fact that Sanzo didn't try to chuck it over his shoulder, though, means that he must not be feeling much better than Hakkai remembers; which, in turn, suggests he should remember about as much as Hakkai does.

Thoughtfully, Hakkai folds his arms, considering the other man.]

But I appear to be some sort of deity of medicine here. I may be able to mix you a more effective remedy.

[He pauses, and adds, fairly:] Once my shinki lets me back into my temple.

It's good to see you.

[Company in adversity! It's both heartening and provides a welcome dose of schadenfreude.]

god training

[kokuyoyo]

Take it to the gods.

[The joke here, of course, is that the pissed off blond now counts as one of the gods he could complain to. Sucks to be him.]

[In contrast, the lanky teenager in the black and pompom'd beanie has the 'luck' of being a shinki, and he watches the man walk out impassively.]

Refreshing~

[erogappa]

[ He doesn't usually bother showing up to the new god-slash-new shinki training days. Mostly, it's just an excuse for the heavens to drop all the new folks into a field so that when they start blowing shit up, they don't destroy anything too valuable. The information that's shared is next to worthless, there's very little in the way of tutoring for shinki skills, and... and okay, he's feeling bitter. But can you blame him?

He's here today, though. Now that he's paying for his own food, the appeal of swiping meal bars and energy drinks from Amaterasu's crew can't be denied. Nobody better say a goddamn thing about the one-armed man with a messenger bag on his hip loading up on the best meal bars. These oatmeal ones, coated in chocolate? He's gonna live on those for a few days. ]

[killsthebuddha]

[ Sanzo hasn’t been able to stick to one place for long, and it’s starting to wear on him. Some part of him had been unwilling to accept that he could be here and Goku wasn’t, so he’d come back to linger. In the end, it isn’t the monkey that shows up, but he’s struck by the sight that Gojyo makes as he starts stashing food in his bag by the fistful. He already knows what he needs to there, and his lips thin into a flat line as he recognizes that he can’t just call out and tell the damn kappa off for being such an idiot.

He doesn’t bother getting up from where he sat yet. Instead, he considers the empty plastic bottle he has in hand. The drink had been nasty, but it might turn out to be useful in the end.

He pitches it unerringly at that bright red target. ]

[erogappa]

[ His day's been going pretty well so far, all things told. Nobody threw up in the bar last night, this morning he snuck into a movie theater and had a great breakfast of popcorn and smuggled-in beer while watching a movie with plenty of explosions, and he's been in heaven for a little over two hours now without running into anybody he knows.

Of course some asshole had to ruin things by chucking garbage at his head. ]

What the fuck!? [ He turns, glass bottle of... of fuck if he knows, something red. Regardless, it's raised in his hand ready to fling back. But the sight of the asshole in question makes him hesitate.

He lowers his hand, ready to (sullenly) dismiss the whole thing. ]

Don't fucking throw shit, jerk.

R&R

[lookingforhead]

[His old traveling companions aren't the only ones he would have seen in the company of the other Sanzo. Now and then there was a woman with them, clad all in black but her face was kept hidden by the yellow helmet she wore. And yet while she wasn't of their circle of mythology and lore he might be able to sense something inhuman about her if he opened his perception to it.

In any case, even after a rousing training session the woman seemed to have no interest in the food and drink laid out and instead wandered back out of the temple grounds to where she had parked her motorcycle.]

(ooc: Better late then never. Hi there! Celty is one of Sharak's shinki, but I've been a bit absent for the past month and change. Trying to pick back up again.)