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

[appealingdame]

Obviously I am.

[Why the hell else would she not know if she's a fighter? Keep up, Shun. She hesitates at the offer and thinks it over.]

Well... I guess I don't want people to know if I'm only okay at it. [If she's bad, that's manageable. If she's great, well, she'll figure out what she's going to do next. If she's only okay, that doesn't help anyone.] Yeah, alright, let's see if I can kick your ass.

[Shun's clearly a lost cause anyway.]

[revolutionfalcon]

Smart move. [Shun had never had the problem courtesy of being a god, but revealing an inability to fight to just anyone could be dangerous. At least in this case, it can be minimised.

Turning away, Shun raises a hand to indicate she should follow, and starts heading towards another part of the dojo. It's shielded from view a little by piles of mats and other equipment, and there's nobody training in it at the moment since it's well away from where the borderline training and practice dummies are set up.]

This is about as good as we'll get for keeping it quiet in here. [He turns on his heel, his posture shifting naturally into a combative stance. His legs are spaced for good balance, but he's holding himself in lighter manner, prepared to move in reaction to attacks rather than focus on holding his ground.]

[appealingdame]

Yeah, all right.

[Charlotte look around, checks they're not within view of anyone else, and then turns to face Shun. So. She guesses they're doing hand-to-hand. That doesn't feel like a bad thing. She gets into a stance as well, first trying to mirror Shun before she adjusts it. Something more aggressive, like she's ready to leap forward at any moment.]

You ready then?

[revolutionfalcon]

[Hand-to-hand is what Shun's most experienced in, but he figures that even if she's trained in a weapon, she'll probably have foundation in hand-to-hand anyway. It's rare that he encounters anyone exclusively able to fight with weapons.

It seems she might already be unconsciously finding her own style, though, and her question initially just gets a raise of the brow from Shun.]

Whenever you are. [Usually he'd snipe about asking a stupid question, but it's unlikely to help her focus if she gets angry with it.]

[appealingdame]

[Shun may have identified Charlotte as a fighter with a glance, but she's still a slight woman. Not very tall, muscular but thin, light on her feet. The kind of frame that usually has fighters relying on dodging, controlling the flow of battle and staying out of their opponents immediate grasp.

Apparently, no one told Charlotte that. She rushes Shun immediately to attempt to drive her elbow into his gut and punch him clean in the face.

It's probably a similar sensation to being hit by a car.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[It's very lucky that Shun is, for one, an agility-based fighter, and for two, very practiced in how to avoid gut shots after a spar against Hitsugaya a while ago reminded him of how bad he is at tanking them.

He sidesteps the elbow, but chooses to instead try blocking the punch to get a gauge of her attack strength. From the way she's moving, he's expecting it to be powerful, but when he goes to block the punch with a forearm, the force of it just about makes his arm numb. Figuring it's better to use the backlash than try to hold his ground and risk breaking his arm, he drops the resistance from his stance and lets his upper half be pushed back. It's a powerful blow even to be shoved by, but he's used to that as well, and he flips himself over using the hand he didn't use to block.

As he goes, he sweeps both feet up into a quick kick towards her jaw, but that's mostly just to try and force her back a bit and give him time to land back on his feet. And also the few moments the arm that was punched probably needs to get feeling back into it.]

[appealingdame]

[Charlotte grins at the sight of Shun being pushed back- maybe she is pretty good at this! Then his kick gets her right in the jaw and sends her reeling back.]

No- [She takes a step back before recovering, a trickle of blood coming from her mouth. She glares at Shun with renewed anger.] Damn it... Stay right there!

[And then she rushes him again, ready to grapple him to the floor and beat him senseless.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun lets out a short breath at the feeling of the kick connecting, disguising the relief in it as much as he can. Landing on his feet, he shakes out his arm until he can feel the tingling flow out.

He doesn't really have the opportunity to do more than that, though, and this time, he moves to sideslip her, ducking low and scything his leg out in an attempt to trip her. She's a powerful hitter, that much he knows from just that one punch, so his focus now is avoiding taking any direct hits. It's rare that anyone gets him on the defensive after that little.]

[appealingdame]

[The tripping almost works, except Charlotte decides mid-fall to just roll with it. She lands on her hands and goes into a forward roll, landing upright in a crouched position. That gives her a low vantage point to try to punch him in the gut.]

Pardon- [Standing back up to punch at Shun again, whatever's within reach] me!

[Oh, this is great. After all the frustration and nervousness so far today, this is delightfully simple.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun turns and steps back as she rolls, figuring she's going to angle for something low while she's down there - while it gets him out of easy reach of the gut punch, when she straightens up he doesn't have a great deal of choice but to front her.

He tries a different method this time, crossing his arms for a block so he doesn't have one arm numb from just trying to hold it there with nothing to brace against, and he can slow the punch more than just trying to stop it immediately. The impact still hurts like hell, and he lets out a hiss of pain, but he pushes back and twists, bringing his leg up to try and drive it into her side.]

Why bother saying that? Keep going. [However wearing it is on him, Shun appreciates a challenge when it comes his way, and if anything's become abundantly clear in these few strikes they've exchanged, it's that she knows what she's doing.]

[appealingdame]

What? [She manages to block this time, grabbing Shun's leg and twisting it painfully for a moment before letting go again.] You outta breath?

[Yeah, she knows what she's doing. Her movements are still a little hesitant, as she figures out what she's capable of, but instinct and muscle memory are perfect for a brawl. Which is more or less what this is. Charlotte keeps going, staying on the attack and mostly ignoring any injuries Shun manages to inflict as she goes. Those are a future problem.]

Sorry about this!

[As she grabs Shun by whatever limb is closest and prepares to actually pick him up and fling him somewhere. She doesn't sound sorry.]

[revolutionfalcon]

It's too early for that. [Shun's tone is somewhat dismissive in saying that, though also somewhat tight from the twisting of his leg. He leaps back once she lets go, alternating his weight to maintain balance while also giving it the chance to recover.

Possibly surprisingly, Shun doesn't react at all to her picking him up to throw him - in fact, he almost makes it too easy, letting his muscles go to ease rather than trying to resist. The use of real damage and effects in the duels of his world mean he's extremely used to being hurled by things like explosions, and as such, is also extremely good at correcting himself.

Charlotte's strength actually helps with that, because the more air he has, the more time he has to correct. He shifts his weight in mid-air until he's poised to land back on his feet, then drops into a crouch once his feet touch ground so he can maintain balance through the long skid that follows.

Straightening up, he immediately sinks back into a position braced to respond to whatever she tries next.] Instead of fake apologies, show me more of it.