thenearshore | December Training

Entry tags:

December Training

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

the basics of proper god behavior

Shinki Training

informational pamphlets

borderline

From Ama,

Physical Training

Rest and Refreshments

Twister

Kubb

lawn Jenga

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~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 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. ]

[ 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.

[ He starts to reach for his gun with his good hand when, for a moment, it looks like Gojyo is stupid enough to throw something back.

But he doesn’t have to draw it, which strikes him as entirely odd for a long moment. Right. It’s not like they know each other. There are plenty of situations where Gojyo won’t go for a fight, and it’s galling to be certain it’s because he can’t hide how wounded he is. Still, he doesn’t have to shoot a bottle out of the air, which is probably for the best. ] Then don’t take everything you can grab, asshole.

[ It’s a weak pretext, but it’s something he might have done to a stranger anyway. His appetite always went to hell when he was injured, but he’d tried one of the chocolate oat ones and it was nearly edible. Either way, he’s somewhat committed now, and he starts to get up to his feet.

The longer the day goes on, the harder that gets. ]

[ Gojyo just raises an eyebrow at that, and pointedly snags another bar from the table. ]

Amaterasu's really scraping the bottom of the barrel with her shinki these days.

[ He has to use his teeth to open it, but don't think he doesn't look damn cool in the process. ]

Like I’d serve any of those fuckers. [ After all, the gods he’d worked for had fired him. This is damn near as aggravating. ] I’m not working for Amaterasu, you were just pissing me off.

[ Huh. No, okay, he's wearing white and he's bandaged up like he'd been burned just like so many of Amaterasu's shinki, but he's the wrong kind of asshole. They're stuck up prissy bitches. This guy's a surly shit.

A surly shit who decided to pick a fight with a total stranger. Gojyo kinda respects that.

He takes a big bite out of his meal bar. ]

So who torched your ass? You remember?

[ Gojyo’s still a nosy fucker that can’t stop himself from getting involved in shit that isn’t his business. That’s something. They don’t have a lot right now to go on, but that’s something. ]

How the hell should I know? [ He’s just being difficult for the sake of it, not that the answer would matter. ] You remember what got a hold of you? [ It comes out defensive, like he’s throwing the question back in Gojyo’s face, rather than legitimately wanting to know. ]

[ Shinki then. That's hard. Imagine showing up here that badly hurt and not knowing why. How would you avoid thinking about something like that?

Maybe thinking about somebody else's problem would help? ]

Chick with a chainsaw. [ He even manages a believable smirk when he says it. ] You want to be careful of the parties they throw here. They'll let anybody in!

[ Damn, he does owe Sharak some sort of apology.

He reaches for his cigarettes, fumbling them only briefly to get one out and up to his lips. His burned arm hangs at his side for now, but he’s practiced enough already at the process. Other the years, he’s had to work around worse to get his nicotine fix. ]

I’ll pass on the shitty chainsaw parties. [ He inclines his head, indicating the training nonsense. ] Though they don’t sound much better than this.

[ Wait, this asshole's arm isn't working either? Damn. Poor guy. His terrible poker face undoubtedly lets some of that pity through, although he's quick to look away. ]

This? Nah, this is about as good as it gets. [ He gestures expansively at the shinki practicing borderlines, other, white-robed shinki helping them. ] This is just their bullshit first day of school. Nobody ever gets attacked by those purple tentacle monsters or giant floating swords or anything like that here.

[ Which is really telling, because you'd think that ayakashi would be all over a field full of shinki with no idea how to use their powers. It made a man wonder about just who was in control here? ]

You get your phone thing yet?

[ His lips twitch into a sneer when he realizes what’s going on here. Pity is sure as hell unacceptable. It’s not like he can’t do what needs done, just that his nerves feel like they’re on fire when he tries. It’s different, nothing like getting a damn arm chopped off.

Entirely uncharitable thoughts aside, he just takes in Gojyo’s rambling. Purple tentacle monsters aren’t all that out there, honestly. Giant floating swords? It’s only a little bizarre. But it is telling that this area’s well protected. ]

I’ll pass on that, too. [ Which makes for a bizarre way to say yes. He’s just grousing for the sake of it. Who the hell wanted just anyone to be able to call them? ] It’ll be a pain in the ass to carry around.

[ He almost laughs outright at that. This surly asshole is great! ]

Good. If they try to give you one, tell 'em to go fuck themselves. [ Does he have any of his painkillers on him? Gojyo pats his pocket -- no, no jingle of pills, he must have left them at the bar. Damn. ] They'll say that it's got important information, but it's just these biddies gossipin' over tea and bitching about their love lives.

[ Sore subject. Anyway! Moving on. He points at Genjo's face, and then his own. ]

But hey, if you want somethin' for that, I've got some good stuff at the bar. Doc gave me plenty.

[ This is entirely surreal. He knows, logically, that this is the way Gojyo tends to treat other people— brash, full of bravado, and going out of his way to help them even if it’s only going to be trouble for him.

(Okay, so he knows that Gojyo is that way with him, too, but it’s in a much more mutually antagonistic way.)

The lack of familiarity is uncomfortable. For a moment, it strikes him that this is as if he were meeting that same young idiot that had thought to protect Cho Gonou. He shrugs a shoulder. ] What the hell. I don’t have somewhere else to be. [ He pauses, taking a drag on his cigarette. ] What’ s in it for you?

[ He must really be hurting. Hey, says the stranger, want to come back to my place and do some drugs? You'd have to be pretty damn low to accept that one right off.

Hopefully he can walk. Once they get to Japan they can take a bus, but it's a bit of a walk from here to the temple that drops him near the bar. ]

I'm just a giving kind of guy. [ Hold the bullshit grin from three, two... ] That, and, I dunno. It's fucked up here for us shinki. [ Ready to give the stroll a try, friend? ] Your god's gonna name you at some point, and once they do that they can tell when you're happy and when you're sad. [ He taps his chest, a bit roughly. ] They can feel your feelings, as fucked up as that is.

And a lot of 'em, they think that just because they remember who they used to be, that this makes 'em better than you, and that they know better than you what's best for you. [ Think there's a story there? ] Us shinki, we've got to look out for each other, 'cause you better believe nobody else will.

[ This isn’t particularly good for the reputation of Sanzo priests as a whole around here, but who cared? Gojyo might not know it, but Sanzo is pretty sure he can count on the amnesiac idiot to not try to kill him. He walks alongside, insistent on keeping pace as he listens. It’ll take a toll, but he’s got his pride here.

The story has a familiar rhythm to it, one that makes what little he’s heard about the situation with Gojyo make a hell of a lot more sense. ]

Don’t start lumping me in with you. I’m not interested in being a shinki or some fake-ass bootleg god. [ Feeling what others feel sounds like a special sort of hell, but having that sort of invasion of privacy being forced was even worse for the one called a shinki. Someone’s going to die for this. ] This magic bullshit doesn’t change who you are, jackass, or that the only side you can count on is your own. That has nothing to do with being called shinki or god.

[ He’s a bit winded at the end of that, needing to catch his breath. ]

[ He doesn't slow his pace one tiny bit, but instead of taking the route to the temple (that involves an incline with stairs at the top), he turns to the left and takes the slightly longer path. This path is a little more urban, as much as anything in heaven is, and as they walk the temples they pass get less ornate, their grounds smaller and smaller. ]

Yeah, you'll fit in here just fine. [ This time he does laugh, and it's only Genjo's injuries that stop him from clapping the other man on the shoulder. ] You're a smart guy! It took me weeks to figure that shit out.

[ There. The temple they're heading for is that run-down one there, with holes in the rice paper walls and a yard full of weeds. ]

Has anyone explained the whole travelin' by temple thing to you yet?

[ If he hadn’t run out of breath, he might have shot something back about how his philosophy directly contradicted what Gojyo had said before. Or, maybe, at least called him a dumbass. Whatever. It’s not like it’s his business.

Except it is, a fact he firmly pretends to ignore in order to preserve some semblance of dignity here. ]

Tch, yeah. [ His distaste is evident, despite the fact that he word actually manages to come out as something of a wheeze. He doesn’t like the idea of using this weird, foreign magic in the least. He’ll pull together some more color commentary in a minute, something he has plenty of. ]

[ People are terrible, and people have to look out for each other. It's a contradiction he's lived with for so long he doesn't even see the issue anymore. People are bad so let's be good, who's hungry? ]

Good! Then I don't have to explain that bit. [ His new friend sounds -- and looks -- like absolute shit, but they don't have far to go now. The bus stop is just a block down from the temple (accessed with a stolen bus card), and a little midnight rezoning moved the bus stop to right in front of the bar. ] This guy's never here. As far as I can tell, he spends all his time gettin' drunk out in the living world.

[ Which seems to be a popular choice.

Watch your step on the porch, buddy -- the temple gate's just past the hallway, but the floor is uneven in places. ]

[ It’s putting him off balance to not have Gojyo sniping at him. There was always something particularly motivating about the incessant bullshit he had to put up with from the man, but, hell, he should be glad that he doesn’t have to waste bullets on him. ]

Not the worst idea. [ His lack of disagreeableness is apparently a function of how much he needs to take a goddamn break. But they’ll get where they need to go, and then he can get back to being as ill-tempered as usual. He’s still not sure what he’s going to do to deal with Gojyo. He’s not interested in running his life or protecting him. None of his team needed to be babysat, and he doesn’t have the temperament for it.

But what he does need to do is keep the group together. If that meant taking some entirely too long walk to a shitty bar or something, he’s going to. ]

[ Gojyo just snorts at that, pausing in front of the dilapidated archway that serves as this temple's portal. ]

Yeah, if you wanna spend eternity pukin' in alleyways.

[ Come on. ]

[ If it weren’t for the fact that Sharak’s been using teleportation magic in the time she’s been here, he might have balked. Still, it makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Using said magic is entirely uneventful, doing just what it was advertised, but that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable with it. He pats himself down, checking the sutra he’d rolled and tucked away— a temporary measure he’d taken to avoid any of Sharak Sanzo’s fan club. The ones that had attached themselves to her here were apparently not Kouten Brigade quality. ] I’m already tired of this bullshit magic.

[ It’s just a grumble, mostly to himself. He’s going to be a big baby about this and no one can stop him. ]

[ The earth-side temple is a small, run-down place (gosh, what a shocker) on a quiet back alley in a part of town that used to thrum with industry. The privacy is as much of a perk as the proximity to his bar, and...

...Hold everything, he checked what now?

He'd been willing to give the robes a pass -- so many people wore robes, Amaterasu's shinki wore robes, people in movies wore robes, robes were common -- but that thing in Blondie's hand? That wasn't common. That was a goddamn sanzo sutra.

His whole demeanor shifts and he takes a step back, into the (empty, patchily lit) street. ]

Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me.

[ He levels a glare over at Gojyo on reflex, offended before he even catches up to what the implications were.

Shit hadn’t gone down well with Sharak. Right. He gives nothing away at that unfortunate recollection. It’s not like he’s going to pretend to be someone he’s not just to get one of his idiots under control. ]

You got a problem? [ He commits to the course of action without hesitation. It’s an easy reflex to unroll the sutra with a quick motion of his wrist, the scripture settling around his shoulders like a mantle as if it might have come alive at his touch. It’s a comfortable weight, and there’s something reassuring about the fact that Magen remains a constant even while he’s stuck dealing with all the magic bullshit Heaven wanted to throw at him. ]

Fuck.

[ He spits, turning away. It was too good to be true, wasn't it? He tried to do a good thing, and it turned around and bit him in the ass. Ah, but wait. He turns back to Blondie, folding his ar-- that is, clenching his hand into a fist at his side. There's a warning buzz at the back of his mind, cautioning him against asking too many questions, but he's gotten pretty good at finding the limits of what he can and can't know. ]

You know me. Don't you.

I don’t know who the hell you think you are. [ He’s practically snarling, visibly insulted. It’s true, not even an attempt at deflection here. Gojyo has opinions about who he is that are dumb as hell, and that’s dangerous right now.

Everything hurts, Genjo is tired, and none of that has any effect on whether or not he ends up in a fist fight with the kappa in the next few minutes. He’s not the only one with a handicap here, at least. ]

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